Changes Part 4 Past Mistakes
by Kethry47
Summary: SG3 run into a problem on a "simple" recon mission, and this time it is SG1 to the rescue - the final chapter of the SG1/Makepeace adventures. After "Shades of Grey".


CHANGES PART 4: PAST MISTAKES

SPOILERS: Emancipation, A Matter of Time, FIAD, Shades of Grey,

SUMMARY: SG3 run into a problem on a "simple" recon mission, and this time it is SG1 to the rescue

_A mistake you make today, will certainly come back to haunt you tomorrow_.

**PAST MISTAKES**

"General Hammond, sir! It's the colonel! He's gonna be executed in three hours if we don't do something!"

"What!"

Ignoring both the breathless summary of what had brought the team back from their mission precipitately and the all-around surprise that summary had elicited, General George Hammond gave himself a fleeting moment to briefly recapture the events that had led up to this disturbing piece of information.

He had been right again.

Unfortunately.

*

_Earlier _

"Incoming traveler!"

With a frown General Hammond turned to the big window that overlooked the Stargate room. He had only just entered the briefing room, where SG-1 was waiting to receive the final details of their next mission ....

The members of SG-1 occupied their usual places at the big table. They followed their CO's eyes to the spinning gate. Everything looked normal.

"Now what the ... ." The rest of the general's mumbled remark was lost as he sharply turned around and retraced his steps to the door.

Jack O'Neill raised an eyebrow questioningly at Sam Carter who sat opposite him, right next to Daniel Jackson, SG-1's archaeologist/anthropologist cum linguist cum chief troublemaker. She shrugged.

"Sir?" O'Neill inquired of the general's retreating back. "What's wrong?"

Hammond turned in the doorway, still frowning. "No team is scheduled for a return today."

"Uh-uh!"

Jack winced at the undercurrent of alarm in Daniel's voice. It was pretty obvious that their archeologist shared the general's misgivings. Could he have seen his own face he would have recognized a similar expression of apprehension on it. And a short look around him was proof enough that they all agreed on the assessment of the situation.

Unscheduled activations of the Stargate seldom meant anything good.

"Maybe one of the teams is coming home prematurely because they ran out of coffee."

No one deigned O'Neill's remark with an answer, not that he had expected one.

SG1 followed the general into the control room where Sergeant Harriman waited patiently for the arrival of a valid iris code that would allow him to open the protective shield of the gate.

"It's SG-3's code." He announced when the computer had identified the signal. "They have only just left this morning, sir." He turned to General Hammond who was peering over his shoulder at the computer screen.

The lines on Hammond's forehead deepened.

"Open the iris!"

The tension in the control room rose.

"Sir, what do think is wrong with SG-3?" Sam Carter unconsciously bit her lower lip. Her eyes moved from the quiet, shimmering Stargate to the worried face of her CO.

"No idea, Carter." O'Neill's glance stayed locked on the gate. "I only know that Makepeace isn't the type to come running home because a bug bit him or one of his people forgot to pack clean socks."

When the wormhole finally spat out three men, it was almost something of an anti-climax. The three men - definitely SG-3 - stepped out of the gate with the usual extra little push. Equally definitely, they were unharmed and without any Jaffa or other unfriendlies on their heels either.

After a moment, the wormhole destabilized and the big ring stood empty again.

The people in the control room kept watching the returning team.

Their unease grew.

Something **was** wrong. For a second or two, the men of SG-3 remained at the top of the ramp, as if frozen in place, looking over their shoulders, back at the empty gate. Then they sharply turned around and practically flew down the broad grate to the waiting soldiers, where they were intercepted by the captain of the guard detail for a first cursory check.

"Looks like something did bite them." Daniel Jackson commented the unusual rush and unmistakable agitation of the men.

"These men do appear to have misplaced not only their equipment, but also all their weapons," Teal'c observed, one eyebrow rising.

None of the men carried any of the gear or weapons that habitually went out on a mission with each team.

Nevertheless, it all paled beside the one fact that no one could fail to notice.

"What the heck...?" O'Neill looked up at Hammond. The colonel didn't finish his question, he didn't have to. Their faces clearly displayed to each other that they shared the same thought.

Three men!

SG-3 consisted of four people!

*

"Would you, please, repeat that, Johnson?" After his initial exclamation of surprise and disbelief, Jack O'Neill's voice now was dangerously quiet. The burly 2IC of SG-3 swallowed and lowered his eyes to intensely inspect the floor in front of him. He stood in the briefing room, together with the rest of his team, SG-1 and General Hammond.

Then he raised his head again and told Colonel O'Neill what he had already told the general.

"Colonel Makepeace will be executed in three hours."

"Damn! You just left him there in the hands of those savages? What kind of a soldier are you, Johnson? I thought you Marines always look out for each other?"

O'Neill was furious. Leaving a team member behind was the worst sin he could think of. It had happened to him once, and he had sworn it would never happen to anybody he worked with. Makepeace wasn't on SG-1, but he was SGC and that made him part of the bigger team that Jack belonged to, too. Besides, Bob Makepeace was a friend. They didn't always see eye to eye about everything, but they agreed in the important things - they'd both go the extra mile to protect their planet, their country, and especially their friends.

"Sir, Colonel O'Neill, ... Colonel Makepeace told us to leave. He **ordered** us to leave."

"And so you just went like good, little soldiers, huh?"

"We didn't have a choice, sir." Sergeant Harris broke in, trying to defend their actions. "If we hadn't agreed to leave, they'd have probably executed Colonel Makepeace on the spot. This way we had a chance to go back and get him some help."

"Executed on the spot?" Jack O'Neill's voice was so low the others had difficulty understanding his whispered query. The air around the colonel palpably cracked with the ice-cold anger he projected.

"Haven't those people ever heard about a thing called a 'fair trial'?" His voice rose. "And how come the 'execution' part was already clear?" O'Neill glared at the members of SG-3 incredulously.

"Isn't it customary to first hold a trial, then await the outcome of the palaver, and only after that announce the sentence?"

He let his eyes briefly move around, to check on the reactions of the others. Then his gaze fell on the unfortunate Johnson again.

"I mean there's all that 'innocent until proven guilty' stuff. You're telling me you'd barely arrived there and Makepeace was tried, judged and condemned in a blink - like, hey, they took one look at him and decided he was Jack-the-Ripper - so, hooray, let's string him up?" He snipped his fingers at the Marine lieutenant disdainfully, his eyes flashing a dangerous fire.

"I don't know, sir. They wouldn't answer our questions, just told us that the colonel was found guilty of the worst possible crime, and that there was only one kind of punishment for it. They'd apparently passed the sentence some time ago ... in his absence. So, now all they had to do was carry it out - unless someone would come forward to speak for Colonel Makepeace."

Johnson looked around him to his team mates. They evidently felt just as uncomfortable as he did. Then he squared his shoulders and turned back to General Hammond, who had simply been listening to the exchange so far, and continued.

"Sir, it seems it is their custom to grant a condemned person a five-hour reprieve before the execution. During that time someone can intercede with the Council of Elders for the accused. They have promised that nothing will happen to Colonel Makepeace in those five hours."

There was a plea in Johnson's eyes. He licked his lips and went on with his report.

"Three of those five hours are still left. That's the time we have to return there. They have agreed to let us bring someone to defend the colonel ... as his 'amrath', they called it. That's someone like a lawyer ... or something ... I guess," Johnson uncertainly informed his superior. He shrugged unhappily, looking from colonel to general.

Colonel O'Neill's accusation left him with a bad feeling. What if he really had abandoned Colonel Makepeace to a certain death? What if those people didn't keep their promise? What if they came back and the colonel was already dead? It would be his fault then. They didn't have to follow the colonel's orders; they might have been able to fight him out of it. Their weapons were far superior to swords and arrows.

"A **lawyer**!!!" O'Neill suddenly bellowed derisively. "For cryin' out loud! What for? If the trial's been held, what would he need one of those shysters for **now**?"

"Easy now! Hold it, everybody! First of all, let's take a seat." General Hammond stepped in. He needed to restore a semblance of order to this strange and extremely disturbing debriefing before things got completely out of hand. "Lieutenant Johnson, a concise report on the mission, please, right from the moment SG-3 arrived on the planet. Maybe then we can get an idea of what the hell is going on."

His raised hand and a stern look stopped the cutting remark that was on Jack O'Neill's lips. Hammond waited until everybody had found a chair, before he nodded to the black lieutenant. "Your report now, son."

"Yes, sir!" Johnson seemed to need a moment to sort things out in his mind, and then he started. "When we stepped through the gate, we found the MALP surrounded by a group of natives, about eight or ten of them. They appeared to be friendly - colorfully dressed, simple people by the looks of them, overtly curious, but non-threatening. None of them carried any arms, and they gave the overall impression of being members of a very peaceful people. Nobody seemed to be afraid of us. They were very polite, too - always putting their hands together and bowing." Unconsciously he mimed the action.

"Colonel Makepeace ordered us to stay alert, as he approached them. They talked and we got invited to join the locals for a welcoming celebration in their home town, Calthem, which is about an hour's march away from the gate. We went along and ended up as the personal guests of Larreen, the town's mayor or whatever her title is."

He shrugged and added thoughtfully, "Well, she called herself a council elder. I suppose that's some kind of title." The lieutenant stopped and cleared his throat.

"She?" Jack's raised eyebrows indicated his surprise.

"Yes, sir. She. This mayor is a woman, of middle age, I'd suppose. She seemed a nice lady, sir."

"Yes, **very** nice, I'm sure. Apart from being a female henchman, huh?"

Hammond's slight cough focused the attention back on the topic, and Johnson resumed his report.

"We were being shown around the town by the lady-mayor when suddenly two guys came up to her and asked her to step aside because an important matter had come up. They whispered for a bit, she went blank - sort of." He shrugged again, unable to describe the woman's reaction better. "She got very agitated, and the next thing we knew, we were surrounded by a whole bunch of heavily armed guards - with swords, bows an' arrows and stuff like that. They told us we were arrested and ordered us to put down our weapons or die."

Johnson interrupted his tale again and shifted uneasily in his chair. The next part apparently didn't sit too well with him.

"Colonel Makepeace told us to comply, so we did. We still had no idea what it all was about, but I think we might have made a stand right there and we'd have probably got away then, even though they had us outnumbered by three to one. But on the colonel's order we laid down our weapons and followed the guards to some sort of meeting hall or court room."

When Johnson paused again, the general prompted, "What happened there?"

The lieutenant licked his lips. He didn't dare look at Colonel O'Neill.

"Two women, an old crone and a young girl, both in long, white robes, came up to us. The old one was introduced as some kind of priestess, I believe. The lady-mayor asked them to verify and repeat their accusation. They looked each of us over very carefully, and then they both declared the colonel guilty of murder."

A stunned silence followed Johnson's statement.

At last it was broken by an impatient "Well, then what?" from Jack O'Neill.

"Sir, we protested, but we were told to be quiet. The mayor then asked the two women about us," Johnson indicated Harris, Edelman and himself, "and they said they didn't recognize us, which according to their law meant we couldn't be held and had to be assumed innocent - as Larreen informed us. Next she ordered the guards to put the colonel into some kind of holding cubicle and to escort us to the Stargate."

He swallowed and cleared his throat again.

"We wanted to stay, but they told us the colonel had only five hours left until the sentence would be carried out. We were not allowed to ask any questions or speak for the colonel. Apparently only this 'amrath' can do that and they wouldn't accept one of us to do it. Colonel Makepeace himself wasn't given any chance to argue his case, either. They didn't answer any of his questions, so he ordered us to go back to the SGC and get help."

"You mean you have no idea who Makepeace is accused of having killed and when, or even why they seem to be so sure he's the bad guy?"

"No, sir." Lieutenant Johnson switched a guilty glance from Colonel O'Neill to the general. "They simply marched us out of town; and on the way to the Stargate, one of the guards only mentioned that nobody but this 'amrath' person and an escort were allowed to return. No arms, he stated."

"Sir," the Marine implored, "we have to go back as soon as possible. Maybe Major Kovacek could accompany us and act as the colonel's 'amrath'. He's the next best thing to a lawyer that we have, isn't he?"

The general answered Johnson's hopeful look with a frown and a deep sigh. Then he turned to Daniel Jackson and Teal'c.

"This 'amrath', does the term mean anything to you, Dr. Jackson? Teal'c?"

"I regret, General Hammond, but I do not recognize the term." Teal'c solemnly shook his head, but Daniel's forehead was creased in concentration, searching his brain for a connection to one of the many languages and other informational tidbits he had stored away in there. Finally he, too, admitted defeat and also shook his head.

"Did they stipulate how many people the escort may consist of?" General Hammond inquired of the three SG-3 team members.

"No, sir, they didn't," Harris answered. Johnson sat slumped in his chair, deep in thought.

"Good!" Having made up his mind, the general didn't take long to arrive at a decision. He had all the necessary information, after all. He turned to Sergeant Harriman who had been following the debriefing. "Sergeant, please, find Major Kovacek and tell him to prepare for a mission immediately. The major ought to be on base still."

Next his eyes fastened on Jack O'Neill. "Colonel O'Neill, SG-1 will accompany Major Kovacek to P6X-194. Maybe Teal'c's or Dr Jackson's knowledge of foreign customs and cultures will contribute to establishing what is going on. The whole thing has got to be a terrible misunderstanding. Your job is to clear it up."

After a quick glance around the table he continued, "And remember, no weapons, please. You heard Lieutenant Johnson. We don't want to risk Colonel Makepeace's life. You will have to get the colonel free of this ridiculous charge without force." A look of understanding passed between the general and the colonel, and O'Neill nodded.

"I want everybody ready in half an hour. Lieutenant Johnson, Sergeant Harris, you will be part of Major Kovacek's escort as well. We will hopefully get away with an honor guard or escort, or whatever they want to call it, of six people."

When Private Edelman started to protest Hammond stopped him with a shake of his head.

"No, son, you won't be going with them. We need you here, in case we will have to mount a rescue operation. You will have to lead them to Calthem then."

Nodding reluctantly, Edelman subsided.

General Hammond looked at each of the people he was going to send out in turn.

"You have twenty-four hours. Then I'll send in reinforcements; though I seriously hope that that won't be necessary. ... I am sure I don't have to remind you to tread very carefully, whatever you do. Colonel Makepeace's life may depend on your actions."

The serious faces all around him told him that they knew the score just as well as he did. He turned to O'Neill. "Colonel O'Neill, Major Kovacek will be the leader of this mission in all things concerning the release of Colonel Makepeace. It is your job to see to it that he can do so undisturbed - and successfully. Your prime objective is to bring back Colonel Makepeace, alive and well." He acknowledged the Colonel's nod with a short movement of his own head.

"However, I want you to remember as well that the Tok'ra have passed along rumors that P6X-194 might be a possibly very rich source of na'quada – anda planet that has never been visited by the Goa'uld, as it has been under Asgard protection for millennia. Our brief preliminary survey by the MALP has not given us any conclusive results. It was SG-3's task to verify the reports and to start negotiations with the local people. If possible, I'd like this resolved in a way that leaves the door open for trade discussions. Na'quada is a quantity that is still very much in demand here."

"Yes, sir." There wasn't much the colonel could say to that. But the general wasn't quite finished yet.

"I know that even without weapons you can all hold your own in a fight. With the exception of Dr. Jackson, every one of you is an expert in hand-to-hand combat. Only - please, don't provoke anything, and don't let yourselves be provoked. Play along with the locals as much and as long as you can. Keeping on the good side of these people is a major concern. **But**, ... bring back Colonel Makepeace. Is that understood?"

Answers of "yes, sir" were flung at him from all sides.

"Dismissed!"

*

"Another nice, little planet with lots of grass and nice, little trees and look who's there - a nice, little welcoming committee, too. Surprise, surprise."

Jack O'Neill's sarcasm seemed to bounce off the armed guards grouped around the foot of the Stargate. They didn't even blink. Their watchful stance didn't waver, and neither did the arrows that were trained on the new-comers.

Major Stan Kovacek threw his colleague an acidic glare. "Can it, Colonel. You're supposed to be my escort," he whispered. He only wished O'Neill would manage to keep his mouth shut for once. Annoying the inhabitants of this world wouldn't really be of much help for the up-coming trial. Bowing slightly, he politely addressed the leader of the small, but very alert and very professional looking force that was obviously awaiting them.

"Greetings. We have come to speak for our imprisoned comrade, Colonel Makepeace. We are unarmed, as you have asked. Now, would you, please, show us to the place where you are holding our friend."

All he got for an answer was a grim glance out of a pair of cold eyes that were looking him over carefully.

"Hey, Stan, try 'Take us to your leader!' - that usually does the job," Jack couldn't help muttering not-quite-under his breath. The leader of SG-9 granted him another warning scowl.

Stan Kovacek was sure that much of O'Neill's bravado was just show, masking the unease he felt at turning up here on this unknown planet, to face an unknown problem with unknown means, and most importantly, without any of the arsenal usually at his command - all the while knowing that the life of a friend might depend on them. Without his weapons and equipment O'Neill had to feel pretty naked.

He shared those misgivings, but they had to abide by the rules set down by these people. That might prove the only way to get Colonel Makepeace out of his predicament peacefully.

Major Kovacek sighed inwardly. He only hoped it would be possible to get the Marine free of this charge without breaking the rules. He was well aware that SG-1 probably wasn't as unarmed as they appeared to be. They wouldn't stand by and watch Makepeace get executed - well, neither would he. He'd have to try going by the local laws first, though. So far they had been able to keep a good name on most of the planets they had visited. He didn't want to have to add this one to the few exceptions.

Meanwhile the leader of the guard had checked them over visually. His eyes had widened at the sight of the huge Jaffa, but that had been all. When he was satisfied that they indeed looked to be unarmed, he nodded to his own team, motioning them to arrange themselves around the strangers. Then he briskly set off in the direction of the town whose high walls loomed in the distance, leaving the SGC delegation to follow him. He didn't notice the ironic 'after-you' gesture with which Jack O'Neill let Major Kovacek precede him and the rest of SG-1 and SG-3.

*

In Calthem, Robert Makepeace still pondered the whys and whos of the strange accusation that had been flung at him.

He sat on the paved floor of some sort of barred cell, more of a cage really, some two by two meters, just outside of the communal building - in full view of the whole town - or so it seemed. The bars went around all four sides and they certainly didn't keep out the dark looks the passers-by were casting him.

Strangely, there seemed to be a lot of people who had suddenly deemed it necessary to take a stroll along this particular part of the town. He was grateful that angry glares were the only things directed at him. He could well imagine much more unpleasant missives being sent his way.

Whoever it was he was supposed to have killed, it must have been someone either pretty important or well-liked - or both. He was sure that if it hadn't been for Larreen's promise to adhere to their customs and to hold the execution for the allotted five hours, his fate would already have been signed and sealed. And he'd probably be a nicely rotting corpse by now.

He still hadn't been able to get anybody to explain things to him, not even to simply tell him, who he was supposed to have killed, or when. All he got from the two scowling guardsmen, who had been detailed to watching him, were still more dirty looks and a growled demand for silence.

So, finally, he had resigned himself to feigning indifference, - and to covertly familiarizing himself with the outlay of the town - just in case he might need the knowledge in the near future. Though, to tell the truth, he had absolutely no idea how he should manage an escape under the watchful eyes of a couple of hundred people, who were all seemingly very eager to see him star in the main event of the day.

His best hope lay with Johnson and the SGC.

When the guards had taken him away, they had subjected him to a very thorough body search to make sure he didn't carry any hidden weapons. Along with assorted knives and anything else that looked suspicious in the eyes of his captors, they had also relieved him of his watch, so he had no way of telling the exact time. But by the position of the sun he surmised that almost four of the promised five hours of the delay were over. Whoever the SGC was going to send, they had to be arriving soon, or else they might find him swinging on the end of a rope - or whatever unpleasant variety of doing away with their condemned the people of this place favored.

A disturbance at the edge of his vision caught his attention. Flanked by a heavily armed escort of the local guards, several people in the familiar uniforms of the SGC were led into the town square and on into the council building - Johnson, Harris, SG1 and Major Stan Kovacek.

The cavalry had arrived.

*

"What do you mean they won't let you speak for Makepeace? Geez, I thought that was the main reason for the whole exercise, to get you here as Makepeace's 'amma'."

Jack O'Neill glared in bewilderment at a frowning Major Kovacek.

"'Amrath'," Daniel mumbled a correction, but nobody was listening to him. They were all concentrating on the man who was supposed to get Makepeace out of this mess.

Daniel and the major had been granted an audience with Larreen and the high priestess of the town, and had had the situation explained to them, while the others were made to wait in the anteroom of the meeting hall. They had been prevented from talking to Makepeace by the still very much present and alert guards. They only knew he was still alive because they had spotted him in his cage on their way to the council building.

The conference had lasted for more than half an hour and by now Jack was more than impatient to get into the action. He wasn't used to waiting on the side lines. Now they were back, but their news didn't sound exactly encouraging.

"Well?"

Stan Kovacek shrugged. "Larreen has told us that it is impossible for me to be the colonel's 'amrath'. She wasn't too clear on this, but it looks as if only a member of his family, someone close to him, is allowed to be his 'amrath'."

"Okay, so what's to stop you from being his long lost brother, the errant black sheep of the family?" Jack inquired sarcastically.

"The simple fact that they asked me if I was a member of his family BEFORE the 'amrath' question came up," was the emphatic answer.

"And you said 'no'." Jack didn't need the apologetic nod to know the answer.

"Sure, I thought being a family member might debar me from helping him. So I told them 'no', and that it was my job to defend people."

"So, what now? We leave Makepeace to rot in his cage and eventually watch them cut off his head ... or slice him into neat little pieces with their overgrown kitchen knives ... or ...?"

Before Jack could continue with his prophesies of gloom and doom, Daniel raised a hand. "Ahem, Jack, ... hm,... Larreen didn't say we couldn't help. On the contrary, she explicitly agreed that we could.... So, ...uhm ... I mean, even if they won't accept the major to speak for Colonel Makepeace, there is no reason why .... ahem ... one of us can't be his 'amrath', is there?"

They were all looking at him now. He started fidgeting and fumbled with his glasses the way he always did when he felt uncomfortable about something. Finally, almost defiantly, he continued, "I mean, what else is there to do? It's his only chance, right?"

"Right, Danny-boy." With a relieved grin Jack delivered a few light pats on the younger man's back. "So you told them you're his baby brother, right, Danny?" He chuckled. "Good idea. You can talk rings around them until they won't know whether they are coming or going."

"Sorry, Colonel, won't work. Dr Jackson never even had a chance to suggest anything like it." Stan Kovacek ripped O'Neill's plan to pieces before it could even get past the first stage of being launched. "Their priestess had already decided on who would have to be the colonel's 'amrath'. She told us that by their customs there was only one among us who they could accept as such."

He had their full attention now.

"Well, Kovacek, who?"

The major and Daniel exchanged a glance. They knew Jack wasn't going to like what they had to tell him.

"Apparently the only one of us who is sufficiently worried about Colonel Makepeace to qualify is Major Carter. They'll accept only her as his 'amrath'."

The collective stares shifted to Sam Carter, who found herself blushing under their close scrutiny.

"What are you all looking at me like that? Of course, I'm worried about Colonel Makepeace. He's a good friend. Besides, what's that got to do with it?"

Then Major Kovacek's words really sank in. "I can't be this 'amrath'. I don't know anything about trials and what to do or say." They could all hear the rising panic in her voice.

With an audible snap, O'Neill closed his slightly gaping mouth. He gripped Carter's shoulder. "Hey, Carter, you can do it. We'll help you. Stan can tell you all you need to know. It's not as if this was the Supreme Court."

"I don't think this is like any kind of court as we know it." Major Kovacek threw in. He did not look very happy.

"Well, out with it, Kovacek! What's bothering you?" Jack ordered. He hadn't missed the faint unease in the other man's eyes.

Stan Kovacek sighed.

"Come on, Stan! What is it? Makepeace doesn't have all that much time."

The major glanced at Carter, who at once felt her misgivings soar sky-high.

"Apparently a condemned person can be saved if someone, this 'amrath', is willing to answer for her or him. This means that the 'amrath' can ... sort of defend the accused to the tribunal of elders. Explain his actions and perhaps convince them that the sentence should be changed." He paused and looked at Daniel for help.

The younger man shifted uneasily on his feet. Finally he addressed Sam, gesturing vaguely. "If you do it, you can talk to everyone and ask them to give witness to what happened. You can tell them Colonel Makepeace's version of the event and you can plead with the council, just like a lawyer back home would do. But there's a catch, Sam."

Before Daniel could tell her the bad news - and Sam just knew it had to be pretty bad news, otherwise Daniel would have come right out with it, instead of this uncharacteristic beating about the bush - Larreen and another, very much younger, woman approached them.

Larreen bowed before them and then turned straight to Sam Carter.

"Honored traveler, I am First of the Elders of Calthem and I have to ask you, are you willing to be 'amrath' for the one called Colonel Makepeace?"

Sam opened her mouth to answer her, but she was beaten not only by both Daniel and Jack, but also by Major Kovacek, who all three raised their voices in protest. Jack's, of course, was the loudest. "Whoa, hold it, lady. There are a couple of questions we'd like to have answered first."

Larreen politely inclined her head. "As you wish. But unless an 'amrath' comes forward now, we have no choice but to go through with the original sentence. The time of waiting is over. We cannot allow for any more."

She looked at Sam and Sam looked back at her. For all her polite behavior, there was an undercurrent of steel - and anger - in the older woman's voice. Sam realized that they had no more time to waste. The people of Calthem wanted to see results. She didn't hesitate. "Yes, I'll be Colonel Makepeace's 'amrath'."

"Sam, wait, you don't know ...."

"For cryin' out loud, Carter, you have no idea what you're letting yourself in for."

"No, Major Carter, we haven't told you everything."

Ignoring the protesting men, Larreen bowed again. "Very well. The Council of Elders accepts your offer. We will meet again in three of your hours. Then the matter will be settled."

Larreen turned to the woman at her side. "This is Shinora. As you are strangers to our town and to our customs, she has consented to answering your questions and to advise you as to your rights and your duties."

The younger woman bowed as well.

Signaling the leader of the guards to disperse, Larreen informed the small SGC contingent, "You may now see your friend. He will not be allowed to leave his cell before the settlement, but you can talk to him. I will see you again when the time of the settlement begins." Bowing once more, she left.

"Only three hours?" Sam's voice sounded very small, even to her own ears.

"What is it that you haven't told Carter yet? And what's this settlement she was talking about?" Jack growled. The way he looked at Daniel and Stan Kovacek spoke volumes. If they had landed Carter in any kind of danger they would pay for it.

"Ahem,..." Daniel started to answer, but he was cut short by a politely bowing, but adamant Shinora.

"Esteemed strangers, your time is but short. Any talk among yourselves will have to wait. The 'amrath' needs to speak to her bonded." She was gesturing for Sam to accompany her outside. Sam complied, as there seemed to be no real choice.

"Her bonded?" O'Neill mouthed at Daniel as they followed the two women out of the meeting hall, his eyebrows almost disappearing in his hairline. For the moment he was distracted from his earlier question.

"I think she means Makepeace." Daniel mumbled in reply.

"Ya think?"

*

"Guys, I'm sure glad to see you." Robert Makepeace didn't hide his relief.

"Makepeace, lately you display a really exceptional talent for landing in deep shit. I'd have never expected that from you. Other people, yes; but not you." Jack threw a mock glare at Daniel, his accident-prone nemesis. "What have you done to piss these people off at you so much they can hardly wait to see you swing ... or whatever it is they wanna do to you?"

He hadn't failed to notice the looks not only Makepeace, but the whole SGC group received from the townspeople. They certainly wouldn't win any popularity contests here.

Robert Makepeace just shrugged. He couldn't tell O'Neill anything. So far the whole thing pretty much remained a deep mystery to him.

He didn't know that he was about to be enlightened right away - with unexpected and very surprising consequences.

"Oh, ... ahem, ... I can tell you."

Daniel was the center of everybody's attention. He swallowed. Then he looked Makepeace in the eye and told him what he had learned from Larreen.

"It seems that one night, little more than three months ago, a group of dark clad strangers broke into the local temple, which, by the way, is located up on a hilltop outside the town and does not have any kind of defenses."

He gestured to a point somewhere beyond the town walls.

"Larreen said that only the high priestess and a group of temple novices live there. ... These men stole a holy artifact, but they were surprised in the act by one of the novices, who sounded the alarm and tried to stop the thieves. She was killed. On their way out, the men set off an explosion that must have destroyed half the temple and killed two more of the novices. ..."

Daniel took a deep breath, his eyes still on Makepeace's face. The others all watched the archaeologist, waiting for him to finish the story. So he was the only one who saw the Marine's eyes widen in shock, saw understanding dawning on his face.

"One of the novices and the high priestess swear that Colonel Makepeace was one of those men."

Heads swiveled and everybody focused on the Marine now.

Makepeace slumped against the side of the cage, his hands grasping the bars, his forehead supported against them. His eyes were closed.

"Makepeace?" With a feeling of dread Jack approached the man in the cell, touching him on the shoulder. He was almost sure he knew the truth.

So he wasn't really surprised when the Marine lifted his head, looked at them and said in a toneless voice, "They are right."

Gasps and the shocked murmurs of his team forced a crooked smile from him, a smile that failed to reach his eyes.

"Remember where I was three months ago?" Makepeace asked wearily.

Their faces told him that they all did - now -, but Jack had to say it out loud for them.

"Out there with Maybourne's NID goons, 'liberating' weapons and stuff from our allies and anybody who'd stand still for it."

"Yeah."

"Did you kill those three girls?" Stan Kovacek queried, his voice cool and business-like.

Makepeace met his eyes calmly and steadily. "No, I didn't. But I didn't do anything to stop the others from doing it, either. Most of the NID guys weren't so bad, but I knew Cleary and Nelson were bastards who didn't care what happened to the natives of the planets we visited."

He snorted softly.

"They'd kill whoever had the misfortune to get in their way. The first thing Cleary always did when we entered a place was to mine the way out. As soon as we'd cleared out, he'd set the mines off, blocking anyone who tried to follow us. If anybody got caught in the explosion, so much the better to his way of reckoning."

"So that's what happened here, too?"

"Yeah, I remember the temple girl. She attacked Nelson with her bare hands, and he shot her. The others must have died when the temple collapsed."

Makepeace was deep in thought now, reliving the events of the night in his mind.

"I think I remember the high priestess, too. We ran straight into an old woman and two or three other girls on our way out of the temple complex. They'd heard the ruckus and came running from one of the many smaller buildings around the temple. I tossed them to the side, out of our way, but I don' think any of them were hurt badly, let alone killed. They didn't follow us, and we got away with some gimmick that Maybourne wanted."

He shrugged again. Those months weren't exactly a period of his life that he was very proud of. He'd been forced to do some pretty despicable things, by anybody's standards. At the time it had seemed necessary to go along with the NID rogues, so he could get the information the general and the Pentagon had been looking for. He had survived the experience - barely - and in a way, that had been more than he could have expected. As for the rest, he'd have to come to terms with that in his own time.

"I'm sorry, that's all I can say, but there was nothing I could have done."

"High Priestess Tenara and her personal novices were not injured directly. But what you and the others did has harmed all of us. We did not only lose the Holiest of Holies, we were deprived of three of our daughters. One of them was the daughter of Council Elder Larreen, and a designated priestess who would have followed Tenara one day," Shinora informed them.

For a moment she glared at Makepeace in unmasked anger, then she composed her face again. She bowed deeply. "Forgive me. It is not my place to judge you and your deeds. The council will hear the 'amrath', and the settlement will decide your fate."

"What?" Makepeace looked up, startled.

"Yeah! Right! I think it's high time somebody started talking!" Jack had suddenly remembered their earlier, unfinished conversation. "What's this settlement everybody keeps harping about?" He glowered at Daniel and Kovacek.

Shinora, however, had not finished. "Your bonded has offered herself as your 'amrath' and will answer for you," she told Robert Makepeace.

"My bonded?" Uncomprehending he glanced around him.

Jack answered his question, but his eyes never left the other two men. "Carter has been declared your 'am..'-whatever. But somehow I get the feeling that arguing the case for the defense isn't all that the job encompasses. Am I right guys?" he challenged Daniel and Stan Kovacek.

Both men had the grace to look uncomfortable.

"Will - one - of - you - finally - spit - it - out?" O'Neill ground out through clenched teeth. He'd lost any patience he might have had with all their pussyfooting. His gut told him that whatever it was they weren't saying, it had to be really nasty.

He was right.

After a moment's hesitation, Stan Kovacek cleared his throat and reluctantly gave them the bad news. "As Colonel Makepeace's 'amrath' ... Major Carter has agreed to stand in for him. If she can't convince the council of his innocence, she will ... hm ... either have to take his place at the execution - thus saving his life - or she'll have to let the matter be settled by a Trial of Ordeal."

"A what?" O'Neill managed to whisper incredulously through his shock.

"An Act of God," Daniel explained. "That means Sam will have to fight the town's champion in a duel to the death. If she wins, she and the colonel are free to go. ... If she loses, ... Makepeace will die as well," he added softly, breaking the stunned silence that had followed the major's words.

The verbal floodgates opened.

*

"I am not backing out of it. I gave my word. They will only accept me as Colonel Makepeace's 'amrath', and that means I'm his only chance of getting out of this alive. I said I'd do it and I will. That's final. Now are you going to help me present his case to the council or am I on my own?"

After the torrent of protests had eventually trickled down to manageable size, Samantha Carter had proved once again that she could be just as stubborn as any of them.

She glared at them defiantly.

She stood in front of Makepeace's cell, hands balled to fists, ready to take on the whole planet, SGC forces included.

'Like a lioness protecting her cub - or her mate?' Kovacek couldn't help wondering how much truth had been in the rumors about her and Robert Makepeace that had circulated through the SGC some months ago. He'd always thought that if there was something going on between her and another member of the SGC, it had to be O'Neill, but maybe the grapevine hadn't been wrong after all. Makepeace himself was dead set against the whole 'amrath' business - because he was trying to protect her? The Marine still hadn't stopped arguing. "Dammit, Jack! Do something! You're her CO! Do you want to lose her? You can order her to stand down."

_'Yes, I can,' O'Neill__ thought helplessly. 'And lose not only my 2IC, but also everything that we have built for ourselves during the past months. She'd disobey orders and she'd hate me for issuing those orders in the first place. She'd never trust me again. I'd lose out both ways.'_

Aloud he said, "Cut it out, Bob! Carter's given her word and if she thinks she can do it, I won't argue with her. Let's concentrate on a line of defense for you instead."

It won him a grateful glance from Carter. He ignored the colorful curse that assaulted his ears from the direction of Makepeace's cage.

*

For the next few minutes they tossed ideas and suggestions around, without really hitting on anything convincing and practicable.

The facts remained. Makepeace had been there in that fateful night, and he hadn't done anything to prevent the tragedy.

It wouldn't impress the council if Carter told them that, at the time, Makepeace had been infiltrating a rogue group of Earth military, criminals really, and hadn't been able to do anything because his life had depended on his inactivity, because any action on his part would have broken his cover and would most certainly have resulted in his own premature demise.

Nevertheless, Sam was determined to tell them this. It was the truth and maybe they'd understand his position. Though in her heart she doubted that 'the greater good for the greater numbers' would really count for anything here. These people had lost three of their children, not to mention a holy artifact.

However, according to Daniel it wasn't just losing children or a sacred piece of technology that had caused the ire of the population, it was losing daughters that counted for much more to the people of Calthem.

Daniel had questioned Shinora on the local traditions and had found out quite a lot about the way this society was structured.

"The women hold the power. They fill all the important positions and in all that matters, the women decide undisputedly. The only way a man can wield true power is in times of war, though there have even been quite a few female war leaders in the past, Shinora says. But apparently these people haven't seen a war in hundreds of years."

"Wow!"

"Yes, wow." Daniel was impressed, too. He happily smiled at Jack. "Theirs appears to be an extremely peaceful society. The women are said to rule very wisely, and there is hardly any trouble at all. The men seem to be quite comfortable with the arrangement, too."

For a moment he almost lost himself in the fascinating images his information provoked. Daniel dearly wanted to explore the secrets of these people, but then he continued, "Whenever a young girl shows a special potential, be it for leadership, healing, or for the priesthood ... or for whatever else," he shrugged, "even fighting - Shinora says there are several women in the guards -, well, she is singled out and prepared for her future position - if that is what she wishes to do. Apparently nobody is forced to take up something they don't want."

He paused, solemn again, and switched his gaze back to Makepeace. "The girls up in the temple were all novices who would one day have been given various high positions in the priesthood. Larreen's daughter being the highest ranking, as she was showing great potential as a leader, too."

Daniel watched the Marine wince slightly, but Makepeace met his eyes with the same calm as before. Daniel couldn't detect any remorse - but then he had never been able to read Robert Makepeace. In most ways, the man was an enigma to him. Still wondering, he concluded his report.

"Not only have daughters a very high value in this society, but Larreen's daughter was the only one with her abilities and propensity in this generation. It seems that the next generation will have to live without a high priestess, when Tenara dies."

"A whole society that revolves around women." Jack O'Neill contemplated the meaning and possible tactical use of Daniel's information.

"Is there a possibility that this is the reason why these people will only trust Major Carter to represent Colonel Makepeace as his 'amrath'?" As usual Teal'c didn't say much. Sometimes you could even forget the big man was there. Until he hit on something that they had all overlooked.

Startled, they looked at each other.

"Of course," Daniel smacked a hand against his forehead. Something that had been bothering him all along finally clicked into place. "That's why they picked out Sam. She's the only woman among us, so she was their logical choice."

"Huh?" O'Neill obviously still lagged a few paces behind.

"Don't you see it, Jack?"

The older man's face clearly said that he didn't, Daniel realized. He would have to lay it out for him.

"Here the women rule, they make all the important decisions. The men only play second fiddle. So it is logical that in a matter like this, they would only trust another woman. After all, it is a question of life and death."

"Yeah, Carter's and mine." Makepeace muttered grimly.

Daniel ignored him. The anthropologist in him was in his element now.

He beamed at them enthusiastically. "For some reason, there are not many societies around in the galaxy that are led entirely by women. Just imagine what we can learn from them."

"Yeah, Danny, I'm sure, we can." Jack knew he had to stop him now or suffer a lengthy lecture on the merits of a matriarchal society _('Yes, Danny I __know__ the big words, I just don't use them')._ A Danny distracted by one of his favorite subjects was a talkative Danny. Right now he sounded as if he was already far gone on his way to his own personal seventh heaven. "But how is that gonna help Carter defend Makepeace?"

"Oh," Daniel responded, coming down to earth with a jolt. Deeply embarrassed, he stole a glance at Sam. "I don't know. ... It isn't really, ... I suppose, is it?"

Sam had been following Daniel's explanations closely, but she didn't see how she could use the information, either. So far she didn't have much to give the council that might help Makepeace.

Inwardly, she was already bracing herself for the inevitable - to fight their champion.

To the death.

She tried to suppress a shudder.

She didn't know that she hadn't succeeded very well and that it hadn't gone unnoticed, either.

While Daniel concentrated again on getting more useful information from Shinora, Teal'c went back to his self-imposed guard duty, and Kovacek, Johnson and Harris continued to hatch one improbable idea after the other.

Robert Makepeace and Jack O'Neill, however, had kept their eyes on Sam.

"Sam," Robert addressed her softly. " Please, don't worry. There's got to be another way. No matter what you may have agreed to, you weren't aware what they were really asking of you. You don't have to go along with this stupid 'amrath' business. You don't have to do this, Sam."

"But I do!" she almost snarled at him.

He was taken aback at the fury that flashed from her eyes. "Sam, ..." he started helplessly, but she didn't give him the chance to finish his sentence.

"Leave me alone!" She suddenly stormed off, disappearing around the corner of the council building.

Startled, Makepeace looked at O'Neill. The other man only shrugged.

Then, slowly, O'Neill followed her. He had a pretty good idea of what was bugging her.

*

He found her with her back to him, staring unseeingly at the outer wall of the gray stone structure, kicking the unresisting stones. O'Neill sat down on the steps that led up to a colonnade which seemed to go all around the building. He leaned back against one of the tall columns, turning his cap over in his hands, studying her intently from under his lashes.

"Carter?"

"What?" she bit back, without turning around.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing!" she flung the word back at him, her face still averted.

"Yeah, the kind of nothing that's a big something," he retorted in a calm voice.

"Sir!" She swiveled around to face him, her eyes dark and full of an unnamed emotion. For a moment she seemed about to expand on her exclamation, then her shoulders sagged and she sighed. "Please, sir, just leave me alone, will you?"

"Sorry, Carter, no can do. This damned business is too important."

He saw her jaw muscles clench and realized that she was close to her breaking point. He had to defuse the tension first before she would be ready to acknowledge what was bothering her, before she would be ready to talk to him.

O'Neill lightly patted a spot beside him on the stairs. "Come on, Carter, why don't you sit down next to a graying old man who's been there, done it all and might be in sore need of a good hug? We're all alone here, nobody can see us. Nobody can complain to the general about conduct unbecoming an officer and a scientist."

When she didn't react he tried a different approach.

"Hey, did you see how this Shinora took to our Danny boy? I swear the guy's probably the only male in the whole galaxy who only has to set his foot on a new planet, look around him with his big blue eyes and all the girls converge on him and want to take him home to mommy. What do you think is it about him? This cute little-boy-lost look that seems to come natural with him?"

Carter only continued to stare at the wall next to her and absently scratched over the rough surface with a thumb. He could read the degree of her tension in her hunched shoulders. It was much too high.

"Did you know that one of Janet's nurses has re-christened him their 'anthropuppy'? Even they drool over him. They are probably disappointed when he comes home from a mission unharmed, because then they can't fuss over him. No female between 18 and eighty seems to be immune to his charms. ... God, it could almost make a plain guy like me rather jealous."

Nothing.

There was one more card up his sleeve. He had to break her out of this stony silence. Whatever it was that was disturbing her so, she needed to get it out of her system before she confronted the council.

"Earth to Carter, hellooo! Anybody home? .... Knock, knock?" He studied what he could see of her face with raised eyebrows. "Hey, Carter, ... you're supposed to say 'who's there' now."

"God, Colonel, how can you just sit there and crack stupid jokes at a time like this?" She swung around, glaring at him angrily, her eyes mirroring her inner turmoil.

"At a time like what?"

"Damn! Don't play dumb with me." She snapped back. "Robert's going to be executed in less than an hour if I don't find a way to convince the council that he's innocent. And what do I have to tell them? ... That he's sorry, but he couldn't really do anything?"

The expression in her eyes had turned from anger to something approaching helplessness, with a good measure of confusion and hurt thrown in as well.

"That's what this is really all about, isn't it?" he asked, his voice again calm and steady. "It's not the council, or the fight. It's Makepeace, isn't it? You're wondering whether you'll do the right thing getting him free, one way or another. You're asking yourself if he's worth it."

Her eyes opened wide at his statement, and for a second he thought she would try to deny it, but then she asked "Is he?", in a voice that was hushed and filled with doubt.

O'Neill was glad she had finally admitted it. He had seen her face when Makepeace had told of his part in the theft of the gadget and the death of the girls. He knew that the soldier in her probably understood the necessity of the Marine's actions - or rather the lack thereof - but another part of her was revolted. She seemed to have only now truly realized what his pretended defection had encompassed.

Sighing softly, he pushed himself up and went to her side. He put his cap back on and took hold of one of her hands, stroking it gently with his other hand.

"Isn't it strange how you all hardly had any difficulty accepting me back after my excursion into Maybourne's realm? ... Well, apart from Daniel, maybe, but he had good cause," he acceded with a crooked smile. "Bob has technically done exactly the same thing, yet you can't accept it."

"I thought I had," she murmured softly, caught in the memory of the Marine colonel's return, of her happiness to see him alive and well, and rehabilitated. Then her eyes flashed again.

"You don't get it, do you? How can you compare yourself to him? You didn't stand by and watch those NID bastards murder innocent children," she shot at him heatedly. Tugging her hand free, she took a step back and glared into his eyes.

He met her challenge.

"How do you know?"

Startled, her mouth opened, but no sound came. Then she swallowed and declared, "You didn't. You'd never do anything like that."

He repeated, "How do you know?"

When she glanced at him, disturbed and uncertain all of a sudden, he smiled slightly. "There you are. See how easy it is to get a whole new outlook on things? Can you really honestly say that I'd never do anything like that? Half an hour ago you would have said the same of Makepeace - that he'd never do anything like that. You'd have defended him like you defended me."

"But he did. He admitted it," she whispered, her voice wavering.

"And now you're disappointed, aren't you? Disappointed because Makepeace did something you feel to be wrong, even if you know it was something he had to do." When she glared at him again, he added, "Do you think he had a choice?"

"How come that all of a sudden you seem to understand him so well? You never used to be on his side," she accused him, still angry.

O'Neill shrugged. "Because I've been there, too, Carter," he said tiredly. He looked deep into her eyes. "There have been quite a lot of things in my life that I'm certainly not proud of. I can't change them. I wouldn't do them again, if I could help it, but at the time they had to be done and I was there to do them, and I did."

Sam only stared at him, wide-eyed and disbelieving. Under different circumstances it would have been funny to hear O'Neill defend Robert Makepeace to her so eloquently and passionately, but there was nothing funny about the situation.

"Don't delude yourself, Carter. We're military, and life in the military is seldom sweets and roses. Makepeace swore to protect not only his country, but also his planet when he joined the SGC, just as I did, just as you did. We might all be asked to do things we'd rather not do - but we'll do them just the same. Because we don't have a choice. Because someone has to do them. Because we don't let somebody else do a job, when we know that we can do it better, with less risk, with fewer casualties and maybe - sometimes - with more compassion."

"So you're saying we chalk the deaths of these kids up to collateral damage. Tell their folks we're sorry, and that's it, nothing more?"

"No, that's not what I'm saying. I'm asking you to think, Carter."

Noting her uncomprehending glance, he explained, "When I went undercover, I had to play the bad boy for only a few days. Makepeace had to live the lie for more than three months. Three months of constantly being on guard, always watching his every move, careful of every word he said. One wrong step, one wrong word and not only would the mission have gone 'poof', but there'd have been nobody who would have given a dime for his life. He'd have simply disappeared and no one would have noticed - or cared."

He held her eyes.

"Yes, he did stand by when Maybourne's goons killed those kids. And yes, he probably did some other things as well, things that he has no reason to be proud of. But I'm also sure that he does not sleep all that well at night, and I suppose, he won't for some time to come."

Jack was pleased to see the thoughtful expression creeping into her eyes. She was beginning to see the matter more objectively, finally rationalizing everything, which she needed to do, if she was to succeed. And she would succeed, he was sure of it. His faith in her was immense.

Finally, after a long, pensive silence, she drew a deep breath and raised her head again. He could see the ghost of a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.

"So what you're saying is that basically there's no difference between the two of you, and that I should trust him because of it?" she asked, her voice already a lot lighter.

"No difference? Ak, I wouldn't go as far as all that," he replied with a mock frown. Turning serious again, he added, "You could probably say we're different sides of the same coin and you wouldn't be too far out, I guess."

Jack reached for her hand again, and this time, she let him reclaim it with a slight, but genuine smile.

"Whatever happened that night, Bob's options were severely limited. He is a good man, and he deserves our help."

Sam returned the soft pressure he was exerting on her hand and nodded. "You're right, I know that. I guess I always did. I'm sorry I doubted him. Deep down I think I knew it was irrational and stupid, but I just couldn't help myself." Her smile was blossoming fully now. "Thank you, ... sir."

He mirrored her expression. "You're welcome, Carter, but I don't think there's anything stupid about you. You just don't deal with emotions very well. You're much better with those thingummy gadgets you're always fiddling around with."

"I'm not sure that's a compliment," she complained, frowning only half-jokingly, and drew herself up to her full height.

Before O'Neill could do or say anything, they both heard the sound of booted feet running towards them.

Breathlessly, Daniel skidded to a halt in front of them. "The council has convened and we are asked to come. They've already taken Colonel Makepeace inside."

Jack looked at Sam. "Carter, you okay? Can you do it?"

"Yes, sir," she answered confidently, pressing his hand a last time before letting go of it.

Bewildered, Daniel blinked at the two people in front of him. With a practiced, absentminded move he adjusted his glasses on his nose and looked from one of them to the other. He wasn't sure what had been going on between them, but he sensed that Sam had come to an important decision.

"What will you tell the council?" he asked worriedly because he knew they still had no real arguments that Sam could present in the colonel's favor.

"The truth."

*

Okay, so it didn't work. Am I surprised? No, not really.

From what Shinora told me I knew that Larreen still was a long way from getting over the death of her daughter. (Can you ever really get over the death of a dearly loved one? Will I get over Sha're one day? Will I forget her? I hope not. Will I forgive and move on? I hope I already have.)

It's just that there seemed to be a tiny bit of hope that Sam might have been able to pull it off. It was a slim chance to begin with. The chance of a chance - but, of course, she took what little was offered. It wasn't her fault that it didn't work out.

Sam was fantastic.

She told them everything.

What Colonel Makepeace remembered about that night, and why he had been there in the first place. She told them about Earth's problems with those clowns from the NID (Of course, she didn't call them that, she knew better - the name wouldn't have meant anything to anybody in Calthem). She told them how it had been the colonel's task to find those people, find proof for their crimes and make sure they got apprehended. She told them how he had almost got killed trying to accomplish his mission.

She assured them how very, very sorry Colonel Makepeace was for the deaths of those girls, sorry for the loss the people of Calthem had suffered, and were still suffering.

She made sure they realized how much he was haunted by those deaths and that he would still feel the remorse for a long time. Through her, they learned that he wasn't a cold, unfeeling killer who would callously put the deaths of three children behind him and move on as if nothing had happened.

She made them see him for the kind of man he was. (God, she made **me** see him for the kind of man he was. - I never knew nor suspected what he might be hiding under that inscrutable, sarcastic facade. Though I ought to have known - in many ways Makepeace is a lot like Jack.)

She explained how we knew that nothing could bring back the dead girls, but she promised to do anything to at least bring back the holy artifact. (It ought to be somewhere in the SGC storerooms. There were quite a lot of things which couldn't be taken back to their original owners. Some because they were Goa'uld - and we're not exactly on speaking terms with them - , some because we didn't know who they belonged to. The Calthem Holiest of Holies must be among those.)

She expressed our and Colonel Makepeace's deepest sympathies to the bereaved parents of the killed girls, to all the people of Calthem and asked them for their forgiveness.

She presented her case, she argued, she pleaded, she begged.

She was so passionate, so intense.

She was the kind of lawyer any defendant can only dream of.

She moved the council, you could see it. They were impressed by her eloquence, by her passion. They saw she believed in what she was saying, she believed in Colonel Makepeace.

They turned her down flat.

The Council of Elders would not be moved from their earlier decision.

I've got to talk to Sam right away. She needs to know what Shinora has told me.

*

SamanthaCarter is in trouble.

I have listened to her attempt to defend ColonelMakepeace to the Council of Elders of Calthem and I have seen her fail.

If anybody should ask me, I would have to admit that I did indeed expect this failure.

Along with DanielJackson I, too, have listened to the Calthem woman called Shinora. But unlike him I have also watched the people of this town and I have drawn my conclusions as to the expressions in their eyes and on their faces.

They want to see ColonelMakepeace dead.

They want to see a wrong righted by the execution of their ancient laws.

By accepting to abide by these laws, MajorCarter has now put herself in grave danger.

Soon she will be expected to meet the representatives of the people of Calthem in a sacred fight, a struggle to the death.

I believe that I can be of some assistance to her, if she will accept my sharing of knowledge.

I was, after all, First Prime of Apophis and as such I am no stranger to this kind of combat.

*

Damn, damn, damn and damn again!

I should never have taken my sorry ass to this stupid planet. Why, the hell, didn't I study the MALP readings a bit closer? I might have noticed that this was one of the couple of dozen planets that I paid a visit to with Maybourne's goons. Then I could have asked the general to send in another team. But no, I never even imagined anything like this might happen. So, I didn't check and I didn't find out until it was too late - way too late.

Shit, Makepeace, what's with you? Are you getting old? Are you finally past it? Would this be the right time to apply for an office job, to turn into a fat, complacent desk jockey, who does nothing but sign the orders to send others out into the real danger?

Well, if it is, you'll probably never get the chance to even choose the wallpaper. Looks like this here's the end of the road.

How, the hell, did it happen?

After all those months of being on my own, in **enemy country**, always on the alert, always watching my back, my front, my sides, I allowed myself to feel safe in the company of my friends and of my team.

I should have known better.

I got careless.

There is no safety in our line of work.

Never!

And now Sam is gonna pay the price for my stupidity, for my mistake.

I'll never forgive myself, if anything should happen to her.

Who are you trying to kid, Makepeace? If anything should happen to her, you won't be around much longer. So never won't be all that long a time.

She loses, you lose.

Damn! And damn you, too, Jack O'Neill. Do something!

Damn!

*

"When the sun rises we will gather again at the Place of Settlement to let the Gods decide your fate and that of your chosen," Larreen informed Sam before she followed the other elders out of the meeting hall.

She had detected a glimmer of satisfaction in the dark eyes that had rested briefly on her, Sam thought. To her knowledge Larreen had not actively influenced the decision of the council, the council members had heard her and, after a short deliberation, had cast their votes. She would have to fight. Larreen might not have moved the council to anything, but she was certainly glad of the outcome of the hearing.

Okay, so she would fight.

Sam had until morning to prepare and Shinora, as well as her friends and team members were allowed to assist her.

"Sam, I've got to talk to you." The first of her helpers descended on her with his usual exuberance. Daniel grabbed her arm, trying to drag her with him out of the council building.

The others weren't far behind. Kovacek, Johnson, Harris, all three were doing their best to crowd around her. Jack still leant nonchalantly against the wall of the slowly emptying meeting hall, as he had all during the hearing, and Teal'c seemed to be battling with himself whether he should break up the circle around her or not. Shinora stayed politely on the side, waiting to be asked her advice.

"Daniel, please, let go. I do need this arm and if you pull it out of its socket it won't be of much use to me." She tried to free herself from Daniel's grasp. He was so startled when the impact of her words hit him, that he inadvertently pushed her away, thus causing her to lose her balance. Teal'c's steadying hand was the only thing that kept her from falling.

"Daniel!"

"Oops, sorry, Sam," Daniel stammered, once again embarrassed. "But I need to talk to you. There's something you've got to know."

"Yes, later, Daniel." Sam tried to move past the cordon of male bodies around her to reach Robert Makepeace's side before he got led away again by the ever present guards.

"Robert! Don't worry. I can do it. I promise I won't let them kill you. Please, trust me." She reached out to him, but was prevented from touching him by one of the men who were flanking the Marine.

"Don't," the burly guardsman growled, giving her a shove to push her out of the way. "You can join him later in the afterlife."

"Damn, don't touch her, you scum." Makepeace tried to twist out of the guards' grasp. A vicious kick delivered by the second man brought him down to his knees.

"Desist!" The deep voice of the Jaffa, who had suddenly appeared at Sam's side, did not hold any threat, but it conveyed an authority the troops recognized. The guardsmen at once straightened and stood at something like attention. When they noticed their instinctive reaction to Teal's command voice, they frowned and reached for the swords belted at their hips.

"Stop this immediately!" Another voice that didn't brook any arguments joined in. Shinora faced the guards with flashing eyes. "You will lead our prisoner to the Place of Settlement there to await morning, but you will do so without harming him in any way. Nothing has been decided yet, and the Gods may well declare him innocent. Your behavior is shaming all of us."

Suitably cowed the men complied.

Shinora bowed to Sam. "Please, accept my apologies. You may perhaps understand their anger a bit better when I tell you that one of those killed in the temple was the sister of the second captain of the guards. She was a delightful child and very much loved by all the men. They adored her and were very proud that she had been accepted into the temple and would one day achieve a high status as a priestess. I can only ask you to forgive them."

"It's alright," Sam said absently. Her eyes followed Makepeace as he was being lead outside. She wouldn't see him again before the fight. She could only hope that he would be alright, too.

"Let's move outside, kids." O'Neill had stepped up to Daniel, holding the other man back from his second try to get Sam's attention. "Sam, it looks like Daniel has got some really urgent news for you. I think you should listen to him. Besides, we have a fight to prepare for. So, let's do it"

The meeting hall was almost empty now. During the hearing, it had seemed as if all of Calthem had tried to squeeze inside the spacious central room of the council building. Apart from the free space in front and to the side of the U-shaped table that had seated the council members, there had been hardly any room to move in.

Sam had been glad that she had been allotted a chair inside the U. Major Kovacek had tried to stay close to her, in case she needed his help, but she had done surprisingly well without him. Makepeace had been placed next to her under the watchful eyes of his guards - not that there had been any way he could have made his escape through the throng of people between him and the door.

Now everybody but the SGC contingent was gone, and they didn't linger anymore, either.

Once outside, Jack stopped them on the front steps, his eyes on the still dispersing crowds. He wasn't sure, but after Carter's impassioned defense he thought he'd seen some thoughtful glances cast their way. The mood of the inhabitants of Calthem seemed to be shifting. Maybe that was a good sign.

"Okay, Danny," Jack fixed the young archaeologist with a stern look. "Tell us. What disaster have you unearthed for us this time?"

"Ahem." Daniel was back to fidgeting. A bad sign, a VERY bad sign.

"Well," O'Neill prompted him impatiently. The others were also studying Daniel with hardly concealed frowns. Only Sam had the glazed look that said she was there with half of her mind at best. She was probably already off, mentally fighting the Calthem champion.

"Well, Sam, it's like this," Daniel began. "Shinora has told me that the people of Calthem will not choose one champion for you to fight." Before the meaning of his words could sink in or somebody could question him, he continued. "Ahem, .. you see, ... the families of the killed girls have the right to each choose their own representative and you will have to fight all three of them successively."

Startled out of her plotting, Sam's mouth fell open - an action that was mirrored by almost everybody around her.

*

"Ouuuw! ... Damn!" Sam clutched her wrist. She looked down on the weapon at her feet. She had lost it again. This would definitely not do.

"Hey, big guy! I thought you wanted to help her." O'Neill had been watching the 'practice' session with a critical eye. "You're not supposed to beat her up. There'll be plenty of others who'll be trying to do just that soon enough."

"I apologize, MajorCarter."

"No need to, Teal'c. It's alright. It was my fault. I still don't really know how to execute that move."

Sam was frowning. Slowly Teal'c came up to her side to once again show her what he had been trying to impart to her for almost an hour now.

They had started right after Sam had recovered from the little bombshell Danny had let fly, and after he had hastily parted with the rest of his news - the not so unimportant fact that the Settlement was going to be conducted with swords.

At first Sam hadn't shown any reaction at all to this additional piece of news. After all, you could only take so much at a time.

Then she had just squeaked, "Swords?" and her eyes had widened with apprehension. "I've never even held a sword."

Help had come from a most unlikely source. Both Teal'c and Daniel had professed to having extensive knowledge of swords and sword fighting.

"If you will allow me to assist, MajorCarter, I will gladly tell you all I know of the sword dance," Teal'c had offered solemnly. "The training of a Jaffa encompasses extensive work with various types of these weapons. They are used in games of skill and agility. Though the time will be short, I believe my knowledge may well serve you."

"It will be more than I have now," Sam had muttered, still a bit dazed. What had she got herself into?

"It isn't as bad as it sounds, Sam. Really," Daniel had tried to cheer her up. "Sword fighting is a very old skill, and there are many different styles, but the basics are all the same - more or less." He had smiled at her encouragingly. "Besides, we're not talking broad-swords here, but a smaller variety. Something you can handle easily."

"Yeah, I bet," Sam had grumbled. "Slash, swing, cut, nothing to it. ... Except that I only have a couple of hours to learn those basics, and I've never heard of a fighting school that promises instant master degrees." She looked around her with a very doubtful expression.

"You want out of it, Carter?" O'Neill had offered her an alternative. "We can still try to fight Makepeace out of his cell. Hammond's reinforcements should arrive a couple of hours after sun-up. And I'm sure we'll be able to hold the populace off till then."

Sam hesitated for a moment. The offer was enticing. If she took it, she wouldn't have to chance her life in this crazy fight.

Yet, when her answer came, it was delivered in a steady and decisive voice, "No! ... No, sir, I don't want that. I have promised to follow their rules and I will." She took a deep breath and added, "I'll do it - somehow." She would keep her word. ... Besides, she knew how difficult and dangerous it would be to oppose the local guardsmen without the advantage of their modern weapons. They simply couldn't afford to take the risk.

"DanielJackson and I will aid you to the best of our knowledge."

Nobody noticed the small smile of approval that flitted over Shinora's face.

So, here they were in the spacious, walled-off courtyard that Shinora had led them to, a place where they would be unobserved, where, away from prying eyes, Sam could get accustomed to the feel, weight and form of the short sword that their Calthem liaison had found her.

At the moment it didn't look like Sam was making much progress.

Daniel had shown her the 'correct' way to stand with a sword in hand. Then he had started giving her a short demonstration on how to hold the weapon, how to swing, how to attack and how to parry, confusing her more than anything - and Jack had sent him off to go keep Shinora busy. Daniel was more useful there, and besides, he really didn't t trust the woman. She was just too damn helpful, there had to be a catch to all those smiles and polite little bows.

The others had bedded down in the straw on the floor of the barn that built one side of the yard.

For the past hour, Teal'c had been doing his best to show Sam how to handle the unfamiliar weapon. But as O'Neill had observed dryly, "There's no way anybody can make a first class sword fighter overnight, not even an ex-Jaffa."

Sitting on the stone floor of the yard with his back against one of the walls of the enclosure, he had watched them the whole time, and now he pushed himself up and approached Sam. He bent down and retrieved the sword.

"Take a break, Carter. You need the rest anyway, and then I want you to reconsider a few things. Maybe you're going about this the wrong way. I think I've got a better idea."

*

"I didn't know there were so many people in Calthem." Major Kovacek let his eyes roam around the wide arena-type place where the Settlement was to be held. The stands were already packed with people four storeys high and still more streamed through the arched entrance.

"Yeah," Johnson added dryly. "Seems like no one wants to miss the spectacle."

The SG people had been led to a small wooden enclosure at one side of the Circle. Makepeace was shackled to the bars of another cell much like the one he'd been held in previously, next to a lavishly decorated, tribune-like structure opposite the entrance. This platform was obviously reserved for the council members and their families, as most of the faces of those already seated there looked very familiar from the earlier trial.

"Shinora says ... ," Daniel began another of his lectures.

At that Jack desperately wanted to close his ears and shut out the latest bit of news Daniel was about to impart. He gritted his teeth against the remark that was about to pass his lips. 'Shinora says' - he was fast getting tired of hearing those two words - very fast. That woman was saying entirely too much, though he had to concede that most of it had been useful so far - and he dared not miss something important. So he listened.

"This is the first Settlement by Combat that most of these people have seen. There hasn't been one in about forty years." Daniel informed them. "This place is a remnant of the old days. Now it is mostly used by the guardsmen for practice purposes, and for the games that are held twice a year."

"Games?" Jack asked, interested against his will. "What games?"

Daniel turned to him, beaming again. "Oh, it seems the guardsmen of Calthem hold competitions not only among themselves, but also against guards of the other two towns on the planet. They try their fighting skills and the winners are very highly regarded. ... Shinora says her sister, who has made a career in the guards, won the last tournament."

"How interesting." Jack voice showed that he couldn't care less. At the moment he was far more interested in something else. In fact his whole attention was focused on the two figures that had just entered the Circle and were on their way to take possession of the enclosure opposite theirs.

One was a woman in plain, dark leathers and old, well-used armor, walking with the unconscious grace of a trained fighter, her movements short and precise, confidence practically oozing from her. The other a burly giant of a man, who looked like he could squeeze the breath out of any of them without even breaking out in a sweat.

"Is that..." Jack let the question trail off. He didn't really need Daniel's affirmative nod to know that these were indeed Sam's opponents. The reaction of the crowds more than confirmed it for him.

Though no one was openly cheering, they definitely approved of the newcomers and the tension rose palpably.

"So these people haven't fought a war in ages, right?" Jack confronted Daniel. "Then how come this lady looks like she has seen more than enough of her share of fighting? And that guy has to be a brother of King Kong."

"As I was trying to tell you, Jack, if you would just listen," Daniel sounded a bit put out. "For one, there are the games. But then the guards don't just hang around for decorative purposes only. Their main task is to accompany the merchant caravans that go between the three towns. They protect them against the local wildlife and, of course, against the brigands."

"Brigands? Where do they come from all of a sudden?" It was difficult to miss the sarcasm in Jack's voice, but Daniel chose to simply ignore it. Jack was under a lot of stress.

"Shinora says that there are some people who don't want to live by the rules of the matriarchy, and usually they are asked to find their own way of life outside the townships. Some of them have banded together to raid the caravans if they can. ... Brigands."

"I see," Jack remarked dryly. "So anybody who does not agree with what the ruling ladies decide, simply gets thrown out to fend for himself, huh? A convenient little arrangement!"

At this point Sam joined them. Shinora had provided armor for herl and Teal'c had helped her put it on. Now her arms and legs were protected by supple leathers and she wore light-weight body armor over her black t-shirt. She looked doubtfully from the sword in her hand to the man and the woman on the other side of the Circle.

"I'm supposed to win against them?" She sighed.

"Sure," O'Neill answered, giving her an encouraging smile. "Just remember the little something we tried last night. It should do the trick." If he was unduly concerned, he hid it well.

Teal'c nodded, too. "Yes, MajorCarter, you have the knowledge, you are well equipped, and you are able to fight these people. You will win." After a moment he added, "You will win this fight because you are right and they are wrong."

Startled, Sam raised her eyes to meet his solemn brown ones. She saw confidence in them. Confidence in her and her skills. It was the same confidence and faith that she recognized in Jack's eyes. Suddenly a big weight seemed to lift off her shoulders. They really were convinced she could do it.

She wanted to tell them how much she appreciated their support, when suddenly the crowds went quiet. Turning to the circle, they all saw the reason.

Larreen had risen and was evidently waiting for the combatants to join her in front of the platform. The sound of a horn was the obvious demand to move.

Steeling herself, Sam glanced around at her friends and colleagues. Daniel smiled, "Good luck!", Kovacek, Johnson and Harris nodded their agreements and Teal'c inclined his head, indicating that he, too, seconded the wish. O'Neill, of course, just winked at her.

She walked out into the Circle.

The two others did the same.

They all three stopped when they had reached a small, marked space in front of Larreen, Sam half-facing the council woman, half-turned to her soon-to-be opponents.

The council elder raised her hands and called out, "Hear me, oh Gods of our people as I speak the ancient words! We have gathered here to witness Your decision on the fate of these strangers one of whom was found guilty of having invaded Your holy temple, stealing Your Holy Relic and of having caused the death of three of Your chosen novices. This was the verdict of the people of Calthem. You, our Gods, may know otherwise. We ask that You let us partake of Your wisdom and send Your word through one of those who have agreed to be the vessel of Your knowledge. We place the decision of who shall live and who will rightly deserve to die in Your hands. Grace those who are right with Your power, and we will know the truth."

Next she motioned to the guards who had surrounded the Circle, and who were going into 'attention' mode at her signal, thus effectively cordoning off the place to all intruders, as well as making it clear that it would be most unwise for one of the fighters to try leaving prematurely.

"Those who have chosen to prove to us the decision of the Gods have pledged to abide by the rules set down in ancient times. Should one of the combatants waver from their path and break their pledge, we will know the truth and the punishment of the Gods will fall on their heads."

"Hear me, oh people of Calthem," she continued. "Orrana, eldest of the Corran family, has informed me that her family will refrain from exerting their right to determine the truth by this Settlement. They believe that the words the 'amrath' spoke at the hearing are true, and they are convinced that it wasn't the intention of the one called Colonel Makepeace to hurt their daughter, so they will not send a representative into the Circle."

Her words surprised the assembled crowd just as much as the SG teams.

"One less for Sam to fight," Jack murmured satisfied. Not everybody of the inhabitants of Calthem seemed to share his sentiment, though. A lot of dark looks and even darker remarks flew towards Makepeace's cage.

Larreen managed to dim them with a disapproving glance and went on, "Present here to serve in the name of the Gods is the 'amrath', whose name is Samantha Carter. And representing the Reenor and the Gareeta families, Ferreen and Nothgar have entered the circle." She gave the crowd a moment to express their approval before she continued, "The honor of First Fight has fallen on Ferreen."

More whispering among the crowds now, but this time the sound was one of expectation.

The burly man bowed deeply and left the ring. The woman stayed, fixing Sam with a cold, appraising glare.

"Who's this Ferreen?" Jack asked Shinora, who seemed to be loath to leave Daniel's side.

Her answer left both Daniel and Jack gaping at her, dumbfounded.

"My sister, first captain of the guards - the one whom the Gods favored at the last sword games."

On the platform, Larreen looked around her once more, then she lowered her arms. "Let the Gods speak the truth to us."

Her words were the signal for the fighting to commence.

The horn sounded again.

*

She was in trouble.

Her opponent definitely knew what she was doing, whereas Sam was struggling along on the few moves Teal'c had been able to get her to deliver flawlessly. For the moment, she was holding her own, but soon the other woman would see through her and then she'd be lost - with a fatal result.

"You can't let them pin you down," Jack had instructed her last night. "Your best move is to make them play the game your way right from the start."

'Easier said than done, Colonel, let me tell you', Sam thought grimly. Her eyes were glued to her opponent, following her every move, so she could counter them with the defensive tactics Teal'c had shown her. So far she was succeeding, largely because her fighting style - 'ha ha' - was unfamiliar to the other woman. This was keeping Ferreen off balance for the moment. But not for much longer.

Sam desperately looked for an opening to apply the tactics they had agreed on after the first hour of the 'practice' session.

She could still hear the Colonel's voice. "Teal'c is trying to show you how to disarm your opponents, so you can then use your martial arts training to your advantage. But you keep trying to engage him with the sword. That won't do, Carter. There's no way you can master this sword dance in just a few hours, you have to concentrate on learning a few moves that will allow you to get the upper hand right away. Then, when they have lost their swords, you can show them what hand-to-hand really means. Allow them to involve you in a real sword fight and you're a goner."

He had been right - and afterwards she had followed Teal'c's instructions to the letter.

With much better results.

On the practice ground.

Only this here was for real.

'Okay, Sam, think!' She silently admonished herself. 'Let her come to you, avoid her blade, disarm her and then you show her. - Right, that's the plan, nothing to it. ... If only the 'avoid her blade' part were a bit easier.'

Ferreen came at her again, and Sam had no choice but to furiously backpedal to get out of the line of the arc the guardswoman's sword slashed towards her.

*

She was in trouble.

Damn!

'Carter, you've got to hurry this up. It is draining away too much of your strength. You let this swordswoman dictate the moves, instead of taking control yourself. Remember the plan. Come on, you can do it. I know you can.'

Jack's eyes were glued to the fighting women. Unbidden an image flashed into his mind - that of a blond air force captain, a knife in her hands, fighting a Mongol war leader for the life and freedom of his daughter. A woman who had taken up the challenge because she had **known**** she was ****right**. A woman who had come out the winner because of determination, spirit and faith - and stubbornness that was unparalleled.

She had done it then, she would do it now.

O'Neill was startled out of his reverie by an outcry from the crowds.

"Jack!" His arm was gripped hard. Daniel's eyes had never left the two women in the Circle.

*

MajorCarter was not doing well.

By not applying the agreed upon tactics at once, she was now allowing the Calthem guardswoman to breach her defenses.

She was exceeding his expectations. The moves he had taught her last night were executed very well, he had to admit that, but soon it would not be enough anymore. Her lack of experience with this type of combat was beginning to show. The result would not be favorable.

If he had been a Tau'ri, he would have started fidgeting with worry now. As if of its own accord, his hand moved down to the pocket of his fatigues.

Teal'c's hand had not quite finished the movement when a public outcry heralded the beginning of the end.

*

She had done it!

Sam still was not sure she could really believe the sight her eyes showed her. A disarmed Ferreen lay on her back, with Sam kneeling on top of her. Ferreen's right arm was twisted in an unnatural angle under her, the left one was pinned down by Sam's knee, though most of her weight rested on the Calthem woman's chest. Sam's knife was pressed against the other woman's throat.

The guardswoman looked up at Sam, defeat written in her eyes, yet calmly awaiting the slash that would end this round of the Settlement - and her life.

With a swift surprise move, Sam had been able to get under Ferreen's sword arm, knock the sword out of her hand and, dropping her own weapon, had felled the other woman with a few expertly administered kicks and blows. It had all been over in less than a minute.

She had won.

The night before, Sam had closely questioned Shinora on the Settlement and on what was allowed and what wasn't.

So now she asked the woman before her, "Do you accept the decision of the Gods?"

"I do," was the breathless, but firm answer.

"Then by the ancient rules, your life is mine," Sam continued. "To do with as I decide."

For a moment, she let her eyes roam around the stands, until they fastened on Larreen. The council elder was pale as a sheet. One hand was clenched around the wooden partition in front of her; the other clutched the hand of a little girl who was snuggled fearfully against her side.

Sam raised her voice. "Hear me, people of Calthem, Ferreen has acceded defeat at my hands. Your Gods have spoken in my favor. Now it is my right to take this life as proof of our innocence. ... But I have decided otherwise. I hereby give Ferreen her life back."

With those words she removed her knife from the other woman's throat and rolled off her. Swiftly getting back to her feet, Sam stretched out her hand to the fallen woman to help her up as well. With a startled nod Ferreen accepted.

All around them there was a stunned silence.

With a deep, formal bow Ferreen once more acknowledged her defeat, before she left the Circle, cradling her broken arm.

Taking a deep breath, Sam did the same. She was allowed a short reprieve between the fights.

*

"You did good, Carter."

"Yes, way to go, Sam. You were fantastic."

The Colonel and Daniel were waiting for her behind the cordon of baffled guardsmen.

They led her back to their enclosure, plying her with water, massaging her shoulders and telling her to stay loose. She could do it.

If only they would keep their mouths shut.

With the first rush of adrenaline over, Sam started to feel very shaky. She knew very well that she had only been lucky. Ferreen hadn't expected her move; she had been able to surprise her with their tactics. Nothgar was warned. He'd be much harder to take on.

On the periphery of her vision Sam noticed Shinora standing next to Teal'c. She heard the woman ask the Jaffa, "Why did your friend do that? Why did she not take Ferreen's life as was her right? Ferreen would have killed her."

And the deep voice of the Jaffa answered, "It is not the way of the Tau'ri to needlessly take a life. MajorCarter won the struggle. Your sister accepted defeat, so the question of the Settlement was answered satisfactorily. That was all that MajorCarter desired. Taking your sister's life would not have served any logical purpose."

It might have been her imagination, but Sam thought that this information left Shinora a very pensive woman.

Much too soon the obnoxious horn signaled the end of her break.

'King Kong's brother' was waiting for her.

*

'Oh God, Sam, I'm sorry. I'm so God-damn' sorry I landed you in this mess.'

Makepeace wanted nothing more than to close his eyes and make the unequal struggle that was going on in front of his cell disappear. But he couldn't do that. He owed it to Sam to watch. All of this was his fault after all.

This Neolithic monster was using Sam as his punching ball, and all he could do was watch and curse and lend her his silent support.

Damn!

Experimentally, Makepeace rattled at the bars of his cage one more time, but they still weren't giving enough. He had tested them all night, unobtrusively; careful not to disturb his watchers who - secure in the knowledge that he was shackled AND locked in - had succumbed to sleep soon enough. With a little more time, he thought he might even have broken one or two of the bars loose. Their foundations seemed extremely old and had turned brittle in places. But the second set of guards had been much more alert and he'd had to stop.

For the rest of the night he had concentrated on his shackles instead. They had simple, mechanical locks and it hadn't been very hard to pick them. The Marine Corps taught you things like that. To the guards' watchful eyes he still looked bound and secure, as he'd left the irons in place to keep up the fiction.

"God, Sam, I'm so sorry!" He whispered, groaning and hiding his face in his hands when another blow hit her.

*

The Colonel hadn't been too far out with his assessment, Sam thought. 'King Kong's brother' about summed it up perfectly.

If the fight with Ferreen had started off from the wrong angle, this one had begun even worse. Half of the time since the horn had sounded for the second round of the Settlement, she had spent ducking and dodging the blows this mountain of a man was dealing out either with his hand or with his sword. His style was simple, knock her down and go in for the kill.

So far he had even been partly successful with the first half of his strategy, though Sam hadn't yet given him a chance to employ the second.

She'd be damned if she did.

Wrong!

She'd be dead if she did.

Her only advantage was speed. She was way faster than he.

So she tried to use it the best way she could.

She gave him a good run, without actually appearing to run, while she tried to mentally revise their now useless tactics. There was no way she could drop this guy and stay on top of him long enough to get her knife to his throat. He'd swat her like a fly.

His fist connected with her shoulder again, sending her flying.

Ouch! Another set of bruises. As if she didn't have enough already.

This time she'd not been able to avoid the brunt of his blow, as she had most of the other times. A lot of twisting and some fancy foot work had not quite kept her out of his reach, but it had allowed her to ward off a large amount of the force of his hits.

To the others it must seem as if she had been struck badly a couple of times, especially as she had dropped to the ground already three times. But that had been mostly to allow her to roll out of Nothgar's reach. She'd gone with the direction of the blow, taking away its momentum, rolled and had come up again behind the man or to his side. It had given her time to get in a few blows of her own - not that they bothered the guy much.

Unlike his, Sam's aim was not to kill. She was sure he had figured it out already and was trying to use it to his advantage. What he didn't know was that she wouldn't let him. If necessary, she'd do it, she'd kill him. She wouldn't like it, but she'd do it.

Gritting her teeth against the pain in her shoulder, she pirouetted out of his reach.

Nothgar just stood there, most of his large body unprotected, only his eyes following her movements.

Reading his body language correctly, Sam knew he was waiting for her to get closer, trying to land another blow on him. Then he was going to jump her, trip her and come down hard on her.

She wasn't going to fall into that trap. If she did, it would effectively end the fight.

Though to tell the truth, she really hadn't a clue what to do next.

So she sidestepped him again and decided to wait for his next move.

When it came, it came as a big surprise for her. A big, nasty surprise.

Nothgar had evidently reached the conclusion that he wouldn't be able to wear her down. He changed his approach.

This time he simply lunged straight at her, seized her arm and hauled her around towards his sword hand. Before she could do anything to defend herself, his hand - plus the hilt of his sword - bashed into the side of her head.

Pain shot through her, and she could feel her teeth rattle. Crying out, she went down. And this time it was for real.

He knew it, too.

She landed with a jarring impact, the wind knocked out of her. Her sword went flying. Desperately she fumbled for her knife, but somehow she seemed to have lost that, too. Ignoring the pain that shot through her, she tried to curl up, away from him.

But he had anticipated her. He closed the gap between them. As if in slow motion she saw his sword arm rise high above his head.

From afar she thought she heard someone screaming "SAAAM! NOOOO!" In fact, the screaming seemed to come from several directions. Jack? Daniel? - And who else? Probably Robert. Her mind felt strangely detached from her body. Dazed, she waited for the sword to connect with its target.

The screaming gained in volume - it had to come from several hundred throats all around her.

*

When they saw Sam go down from that vicious blow to her head, they all knew that she'd need a miracle to get away unscathed this time.

With a wordless scream O'Neill lunged forward, straight into the cordon of bodies in front of him. Behind him, he could hear Daniel voicing his denial at the top of his lungs, "SAAAM! NOOOO!" On his left he saw Teal'c take out two of the guardsmen with a swipe of his arm. Jack removed another one and left the rest to Johnson, Harris and Kovacek.

He raced to the center of the Circle.

He knew he'd never reach them in time.

O'Neill was so tightly focused on the two people in front of him that he didn't notice what was going on around them.

*

As if watching a slow motion movie, Sam's eyes followed the arc of the sword above her. With almost clinical interest, she noted that it suddenly deviated from its path. It seemed to stop in mid-air.

Then the arc became a straight line.

Down.

With a resounding thud a heavy body landed next to her. The sword clattered harmlessly to the ground at her side.

And the screaming continued.

It took a moment to register that she was still alive, but finally the paralyzing haze seemed to lift from her mind, and Sam's instincts took over. She rolled to her knees. Incredulously, she first looked at the unconscious man next to her, at the residues of a zat-gun shot that still sizzled over his body, then up to the stands.

Her breath caught in her throat at the sight that met her eyes.

All around the council members' platform the wooden stands were collapsing, burying people under them. One half of the big platform had already broken away, and the rest was dangerously tilted. The stairs that had previously lead up to it lay in a heap of splinters at the foot of the structure. Everywhere screaming, frightened people clung to the few still standing supports.

Under Sam's dismayed glance, the rest of platform collapsed.

To use the Colonel's words - what the heck was going on?

At that moment, the man she'd been thinking of arrived at her side, with Teal'c and the other SGC members not far behind him. The circle of guards hadn't even bothered to stop them.

"Carter, you okay?" Breathless, he dropped onto a knee beside her, grabbing her arm, swinging her around to face him.

"Ouch!" Of course, he just had to choose the arm she'd landed on earlier. "Yeah, I'm fine," she assured him, gently rubbing her bruised limb when he let go of it. Calling up an absent half-smile for her friends, she nodded at the fallen man next to them. "What about him? Did you...?" She let the question trail off.

"Godzilla?" O'Neill allowed a small satisfied grin to pass over his features. "Na, that wasn't me."

"I took the liberty of putting your opponent out of action, MajorCarter."

Did she imagine it or did Teal'c really sound very satisfied with himself?

"I hope my timing was correct?"

"Yes, very much so, Teal'c. Thank you."

The big man inclined his head slightly.

"Okay, kids," O'Neill rose swiftly. His eyes dispassionately surveyed the site of the tragedy that was playing out on the other side of the Circle. "There's work to be done." He waved the rest of the SG team on. "Let's see what we can do to help."

Pulling Carter to her feet, he took off for the spot where the former council members' platform had been. The situation there looked particularly bad.

*

Robert Makepeace had seen Sam go down beneath the giant's onslaught, too.

A scream tore out of his throat, "No! SAM!" and under his frenzied hands two of the bars of his cell finally gave. Tearing away their last remains, he desperately attempted to squeeze through, ridding himself of his shackles in the process.

"SAM!" he yelled again, terrified, because he knew that nothing he could do now, would save the woman who was fighting his fight out there.

His voice drowned in a sudden thunderous cracking that was accompanied by a curious, screeching noise. The strange sounds stopped the wild cheering and jumping of the crowds above him. Surprised gasps replaced elation, and then outright, panicked shrieking began in its place.

Tearing his gaze from the tableau out in the Circle, he glanced up at the stands, to find them slowly toppling down to where he was standing.

For a second he stood as if rooted to the spot, then he jumped clear of the cage and stared in muted horror as first the stands in the back collapsed and then the whole structure came thundering down at his feet, raising clouds of dust that effectively obscured everything around him.

One mindless second the world seemed to stand still - then the wailing and screaming began.

People, old and young, men, women and children, all had come crashing down with the stands and were now mostly buried under the broken beams and boards. Only a very few were clinging to the splintered remains unharmed.

Hidden by the billowing dust, Makepeace spared one short glance back to the center of the Circle. Dimly he could make out Sam, racing towards the former stands, O'Neill and Teal'c at her side. Offering a silent prayer of thanks to whatever deity might be listening, he turned back and plunged straight into the chaos in front of him.

*

"Where, the hell, is Makepeace?" Covered with dirt and sporting a mass of small cuts and scrapes, Jack O'Neill glanced around at his people inquiringly. "Anybody seen him?"

"No, sir." Johnson didn't look one bit better than O'Neill did, in fact, none of them did.

Together with the Calthem guardsmen and every other able-bodied and unharmed person around, they'd all spent the last hours digging people out of the remains of the collapsed stands.

It hadn't been easy. The rotten timber had continued breaking and crashing around them all the time, and they had been in danger of being buried alive more than once. From what they had seen, rotting wood had to have been the cause of the catastrophe. The ages-old stands simply hadn't been able to cope with all the hundreds of people jumping up and down in their elation. They had given, pulling those same people down with them, burying, maiming and killing. Hopefully they had found most of them. For the moment at least the screaming and the pitiful cries for help had stopped.

So far the body count had been surprisingly small, only three dead in their little corner of the disaster. The injured however numbered into the hundreds. The Calthem healers would be busy for a long time.

As soon as there was time, Jack would have to send one of the men back, to fetch Doc Fraiser and some of her medical teams. These people needed a lot more professional help - fast.

"Sir." Sergeant Harris tried to wipe the grime off his face with the tattered sleeve of his combat jacket. "The colonel's cell was smashed under the platform. We reached its remains some time ago, but there was no sign of Colonel Makepeace. He must have got out before the thing came crashing down."

"Then where, the heck, is that damn jarhead? - No offense, boys."

"None taken, sir."

As one they all turned to the rubble behind them and let their eyes search the broken beams.

"Jack!" Daniel's nod made them look back again.

From the center of the former combat Circle, an elderly woman, accompanied by Shinora and a guardsman, approached them.

The unknown woman bowed in front of Jack. (Gods, what did it take to make these people lose their polite masks?) This time the inhabitants of Calthem obviously were prepared to acknowledge that he was the leader of the SG teams. There was no way they could have failed to notice it during the rescue operation. O'Neill had definitely taken charge of everything and everyone in his vicinity.

"Council Elder Larreen is still unaccounted for and as the only unharmed council member I speak for the people of Calthem right now. My name is Etudra." She bowed again. "Shinora here tells me that you have offered to send for healers from your world. As our own healers are unable to cope with all the many in desperate need to be taken care of, we would be very grateful for any help that you can lend us." She was not actually begging, but it came close. Very close.

"Gladly, ma'am."

Jack turned to his exhausted people. "Anybody feel like a trip back home?"

At his question, Major Kovacek rose from the wooden stump that he had sat slumped on. "I'll go." He took a deep, ragged breath. "I'll explain the situation to the general, and I'll be back as soon as I can."

He turned to the woman, "Ma'am, if I could get a horse to take me to the gate, it would sure save a lot of time."

She bowed again, "Barad will see to it. ... Thank you."

When the major had left in the company of the guardsman, Etudra turned back to Jack and bowed again. "I have to thank you for all you have already done for our people. Many of them would not be alive if it had not been for your competent and speedy help." Her glance seemed to touch each one of them briefly. "Your strength and your wisdom in these matters have been of immense aid to us."

"Lady, we're glad, we were there to help."

Before she could return to the make-shift hospital/first aid station laid out in the Circle, he stopped her with the one question that still wasn't answered.

"Etudra, we need to know what happened to our friend, Colonel Makepeace. He has to be here somewhere. Would you know if any of your people have seen him?"

She returned his direct, open gaze for a moment, as if searching his face for something, then she looked at the ruined stands.

"Some of our people have told of your friend. How he helped them down from the shattered stands. How he dug them out with his bare hands and led the children to safety. That is all I know. .... I am sorry." Bowing a last time, she left them.

"So,...?" O'Neill's bewildered gaze fell on Shinora. "That's it? She's sorry?"

"She has other things to worry about than... " Shinora started, hesitantly, unable to find the right words.

"... than one condemned murderer, right?" Jack challenged her harshly. "Even if Carter won the god-damned Settlement, huh?" He glared at her. "I thought that was supposed to decide the matter once and for all. By your own rules, Makepeace ought to be free of all charges now."

Even if they had helped the matter along a bit. But it hadn't been a fair fight anyway. What was fair about sending Carter out against a guy like Godzilla? Besides, nobody knew that Teal'c had had a hand in the downfall of the giant, with a weapon he wasn't supposed to have - and to the knowledge of these people didn't have.

With a dangerous glint in his eyes, Jack clapped his hands together. "Alright, kids, looks like we're on our own in this one. Let's go looking for our errant Marine then." His face told Shinora that no one had better come in his way.

*

Once again they started to work their way through the smashed remains of the former grand stand, searching even more systematically and thoroughly than before, cautiously poking into every dark corner, no matter how inaccessible it seemed, calling out Makepeace's name.

They'd been at it for about thirty minutes, and Sam was just trying to squeeze her way into a narrow, dangerous-looking gap between two broken former support beams, when she thought she heard something. Slowly she inched closer to the source of the sounds, careful to avoid the sharp spikes of splintered wood all around her.

"Colonel! Teal'c! ..... Over here!"

When the men came running, they found her crawling backwards on all fours, grinning and pointing to the small hollow she had just left. They squatted down beside her. At the very end of the 'tunnel' they spotted a wall of wood, a mangled heap of multicolored timber: beams, boards, supports, seats, decorations, all mashed together to form a single, impenetrable mass.

The low, grumbling sounds that issued out from behind the debris brought almost identical grins to the faces of the men and the woman who peered into the dark opening.

"Lady, right now I really couldn't care less about what you're thinking of me. You either start helping me or you get the hell out of my way."

Makepeace, definitely, Makepeace. A bit hoarse, and not exactly happy-sounding, but alive.

"Hey, Sam, you still there?" A cough followed the yelled question.

"Yeah, she is, jarhead. ... What are you doing in there? Been taking a nap, I bet. Huh?"

"Jack?" Another cough and a groan.

"Sure, who did you expect? The First Lady - come a-visiting?"

"Nope, I didn't." More groaning. " ... For the simple reason that I've got the First Lady in here with me ... together with her granddaughter. ... So maybe, if you could hurry this the hell up a bit, we'd be really, really grateful."

O'Neill's eyebrows rose. He had to suppress a whistle. So they hadn't only found Makepeace, but Larreen as well.

"How are they, Bob?"

"The lady has probably got a few broken bones, and the little one is a bit frightened, but otherwise they're just fine."

"What about you?"

"'Peachy', Jack, just 'peachy'."

They could almost hear the grin in the Marine's voice as he used one of Jack's favorite expressions.

O'Neill only shook his head wryly and looked around him. "You heard the man, guys. Let's dig our sleeping beauty out."

It took them and the hurriedly summoned Calthem digging crews another hour of strenuous and careful work, but finally they had cleared a safe passage through the rubble.

Makepeace handed first the softly sobbing child out to the waiting helpers and then the injured woman. He was the last to crawl outside. Dirty, scratched, bleeding from a wound on his head, but otherwise 'just peachy'.

They'd done it.

*

Three Hours Later

"Does that mean that Makepeace is finally, officially free?" O'Neill frowned at the woman in front of him. He needed this cleared once and for all.

Shinora smiled and, once again, bowed deeply. "Yes, it does, Colonel O'Neill. Colonel Makepeace is no longer our prisoner. The Gods have declared the charges against him invalid. And not only has his 'amrath' won the Settlement," she seemed to hesitate a moment as if she wanted to expand on the statement, but then she simply went on, "but he has also saved the life of my mother and my niece."

"Your mother and your niece?" Jack had thought the time for surprises was over.

"Yes, Larreen is my mother and Ferreen is my sister, my half-sister to be entirely correct. But that makes her daughter my niece, nevertheless."

Jack nodded slowly, "Ah, yeah," clearly at a loss.

"Even if his bonded hadn't won the Settlement, I think my mother would have granted your Colonel Makepeace his freedom. She is a stubborn woman, and her heart is still aching over the loss of her youngest daughter, but your friend saved the life of her only granddaughter, at the risk of his own life. When the platform collapsed with them, and they were buried beneath it, he could have turned away and been safe, but he did not. Instead he dove in to save them, getting hurt himself. She may not admit it openly yet, but I am sure my mother is very grateful."

"Oh, good." Jack was still puzzling out the relationship between the women, when Daniel joined them.

"Shinora, I have been meaning to ask." Daniel gave her one of his best smiles. "Why do you keep calling Sam Colonel Makepeace's 'bonded'?"

With a bewildered expression, Shinora looked from one man to the other.

"You mean she is not his bond-mate or his chosen?"

"No." O'Neill wore an equally befuddled expression. "Why should she be?"

"She was the only woman with you."

"Yees?"

"She is not the leader of your group."

"No-o?"

"You came to bring the 'amrath' for your friend, but foremost you are explorers."

"Sure."

Jack and Daniel exchanged a bemused glance. Was this turning into the local version of 'Twenty Questions'?

"Then the only reason why a woman be included in a party like yours, must be that she was going to offer her life for her chosen or her confirmed bond-mate."

"You mean she had either to be the boss or the sacrificial lamb?"

Now it was Shinora's turn to look confused.

"Ahem, what Jack means is, that unless Sam had been the leader of our team, she would not be expected to accompany a group such as ours? As she obviously wasn't the leader, you automatically assumed she had to be the colonel's ... uh ... mate?"

"Yes, a lot of our women choose a career among the guards, but they will always have leading positions. No woman would ever go out with a group of explorers and fighters in a subordinate position."

Shinora's explanation finally started to make sense to O'Neill.

"Carter's different. Not that I would call her a 'subordinate' woman, but she's a part of the team. In fact, in military matters she's my second-in-command and in most others she's way ahead of me."

Shinora seemed to need a moment to ponder this new information, and then her face cleared. "Ah, so she is a leader of your people, just in a different aspect? You are co-leaders then."

"Yeah," Jack shrugged. "You could probably put it that way."

With a satisfied smile, Shinora bowed again.

"Oh, Shinora," Daniel's finger was up again, like that of a little school boy going to ask teach a question. "I've got another question. If you hadn't assumed Sam to be Colonel Makepeace's mate, could anybody then have become his 'amrath'?"

"Of course."

Her perplexed look showed that Shinora didn't quite grasp the reason for Daniel's painful wince and Jack's exasperated groan.

"If you had explained earlier, and we had understood her true position, it would have been possible for any of you to offer himself as the 'amrath'. Except for those men who were under the colonel's command. We cannot allow anyone who might have been ordered or coerced to the offer. The same applies to your other friend. He said he was a professional defender. That cannot be allowed either. A true 'amrath' can only be a vessel for the Gods' decision if he or she really believes."

Her glance switched from one perplexed face to the other.

"Is this a problem?"

"Uh, no. Not really. Everything's just fine."

Not really convinced Shinora, nonetheless, wisely decided to leave the matter as it was. After all, customs differed everywhere.

Bowing again, she left the two men alone. "I will see you."

"Yeah, bye to you, too."

For an instant Jack and Daniel just looked at each other, the same thought flashing through their minds.

"Whoa! Oh, boy!"

"Yeah!" Daniel echoed Jack's sigh. Then his eyes locked with the older man's, imploringly.

"Uh, Jack? Considering what Sam went through with this 'amrath' stuff, we'd best not tell her, huh?"

"Right you are, Danny-boy. Rest assured, I won't be the one to tell her that she could have been spared all the trouble, if a certain anthropologist had listened a bit better."

Smirking slightly, Jack turned away to go looking for the rest of his people. Janet Fraiser and her teams were slaving away side by side with the local healers, and for the moment there didn't seem to be anything else that needed doing. They might as well pack it up.

"Ahem, Jack? ... About this 'subordinate woman' thing. ... I promise I won't mention it to Sam, so don't you worry either."

Daniel was getting way too cocky, Jack thought. Maybe he was hanging around him too much. Was sarcasm contagious? But he was too tired to do more than just glare at his friend. He wanted to go home. After all, what else could still happen?

*

In the end, it took them an additional few hours until all had been said and done, and they were finally able to make their way back to the Stargate. As Calthem was more than willing to share its riches, everything else could easily be taken up by another team. This time the guardsmen accompanying the SG teams to the Stargate really were an honor guard and nothing more.

Janet and her teams would soon follow them. The critically injured had been taken care of, and the rest could be done by the local healers. Janet just wanted to make sure that everything was alright before she packed up and left, too. She had told them to go ahead and get the coffee pot going, she didn't need them there. So they had left.

Major Kovacek, Lieutenant Johnson and Sergeant Harris lead the way. Daniel followed them together with Shinora, who had been chosen to represent the grateful people of Calthem at the Stargate. It was obviously not polite to send off someone without a proper farewell. Carter was a few paces behind them and O'Neill, Makepeace and Teal'c were bringing up the rear.

Sam fondly watched Daniel. He was chatting animatedly to a clearly captivated Shinora; his eyes shone with enthusiasm, his hands painted images into the air, his voice was full of the joy of life. Typically Daniel.

Seeing him like this made her remember something Colonel O'Neill had said. What had he called Daniel? Correction, what had he said the nurses called Daniel? Their 'anthropuppy'!

Sam couldn't help the grin that was spreading over her face. Her mind was invaded by the image of a dog with Daniel's mannerisms, Daniel's face, Daniel's eyes. Those eyes that had the puppy dog look down perfect.

Jack was right.

None of the nurses seemed to be able to resist that look. They petted, they cooed, they comforted him. They happily fussed over a Daniel, who seemed to be totally oblivious to what went on around him. Most of the ample time he spent in the infirmary, he was either deeply embarrassed or else very much annoyed, though he never let it show to the girls, who in turn adored him all the more for it.

Poor Daniel!

Sam grinned like mad.

Humming softly to herself, she spun the thought on. If Daniel was a dog, what kind of a dog would he be? Certainly not one of the big, burly, tough, muscled ones that frightened everyone for leagues around. No, definitely not - that was more Teal'c's territory.

Yes, Teal'c would be a Rottweiler or maybe a majestic Great Dane. Big, strong, extremely dangerous to his enemies, but immensely protective of his friends and infinitely reliable, in short Teal'c would be .... Teal'c.

Robert wasn't difficult to place either. Thinking of him as a dog, she immediately saw the German Shepherd her aunt had once owned. The brown-black and silver-gray dog might have looked big and dangerous, but he had been the gentlest of dogs to anybody whom he assumed deserved his affection and his help. He had been a wonderful playmate to herself and her brother, eternally patient and good-natured, but woe unto anybody who'd dared make a threatening move towards the children under his care.

No, Daniel had to be a different type of dog. A happy Spaniel? A curious, cuddly little Dachshund? No, she couldn't really see him as one of those, either. Daniel was always so serious, so persistent in anything he thought needed done, but also enthusiastic, zealous, friendly and full of life.

Suddenly she thought of a vacation she'd once spent in Scotland. Their hostess had owned a small dog - what had she called the breed? A Cairn Terrier. Yes, of course, Daniel was the Terrier type. Small of stature, but tough nonetheless; with that permanent tousle-haired look and laughing, trusting eyes; never able to sit still or pass on a mystery, always burrowing into dark, interesting places, continually investigating anything that came his way regardless of orders or his own safety; indefatigable in his zeal for life - everything that made out Daniel was embodied in that small dog.

By now Sam was chuckling openly.

That only left Jack O'Neill. Hm! He was difficult to place. What would he be? A Greyhound, lean and fast? Or rather a Border Collie, strong, intelligent, capable, always looking out for the sheep entrusted into his care? What about an Airedale, a bold hunter, determined to keep his position as 'top dog'? Maybe even a Dalmatian, a smart, adaptable and independent kind of dog.

She sighed. This wasn't easy. She couldn't really decide. Maybe he was more the original mutt. All the best of everything wrapped into one energetic package.

All of a sudden, Sam was reminded of an old animated movie she and Cassie had watched last week, called 'Oliver and Company'. ... Dodger, the mutt. Devious Dodger. Jack-of-all-trades. Dodger with his kitten. Yes - that was Jack O'Neill! All that was missing was the kitten. (Maybe Daniel ...?)

Sam could feel the giggles rising up in her chest. She tried to suppress them, but soon she was way past the giggling stage - in her mind she saw Dodger, a Dodger with Jack's face, and a tiny, orange kitten (with a distinctive Daniel-look) that kept tagging along behind its big friend. Wasn't that also the movie where the kitten kept sliding down from the dog's head into its face?

Helplessly she sank to her knees. She bent over, laughing full scale now.

"Carter! What's wrong?"

In two long strides, O'Neill was at her side, falling to his knees beside her. He grabbed her by the shoulders and worriedly searched her face. Incredulously, he took in the tears streaming down her face, the way she clutched her sides, howling with laughter.

His brow creased.

Jack's outcry had alerted the others. Apprehensive, they hurried towards them and uncomprehendingly watched him get up again, dust himself off and look down at Sam with a frown.

"Sam," Daniel exclaimed. "What is it?" Jack's outstretched hand stopped him from flinging himself down by her side. Bewildered, Daniel let his eyes trail from Jack to Sam and back.

Sam didn't seem to be able to stop laughing. She could feel herself analyze what was happening to her in a tiny, detached corner of her mind. She was indulging in an uncharacteristic bout of hysteria, probably the natural reaction to what she had been through. Her system needed an outlet for all the tension and stress she'd been under, and the picture of O'Neill and the kitten had been the last straw. Comical relief, it was called. The only problem was, rationalizing it didn't help to stop it.

Robert Makepeace had recognized Sam's problem as well. Noting the puzzled glances of everybody around them and seeing Jack just staring down at Sam irresolutely, obviously unwilling to take the necessary action, he knelt down next to her and raised her face to him.

"Sorry, Sam," he told her apologetically and slapped her twice, hard.

Gulping in a deep breath, she looked at him, wide-eyed. The sudden sting of pain had effectively cut off the hysterical laughter, as Makepeace had known it would.

Sam panted exhaustedly. She stretched out a hand and, as he was getting up himself, the Marine drew her to her feet with him. She leaned on him, waiting to get her breath back. Her sides hurt, and she hardly dared look up. The others must certainly think her mad. She felt so ashamed.

So she was surprised to hear a soft chuckle issue from O'Neill's direction. "Now what brought that on?" he asked her. He, too, had realized what was wrong with Sam, but unlike Makepeace, he hadn't been able to make himself hurt her. So he had been glad when the Marine had taken charge and had shocked Sam out of her hysteria.

Slowly lifting her eyes, Sam saw he was still grinning. She blushed furiously, but returned a hesitant smile.

"Oh, just something funny I was thinking of, and then I couldn't get it out of my mind and I just couldn't stop laughing, either. I'm sorry," she answered evasively.

"It's alright, kids. The show's over. Let's get going!" Jack shooed their bewildered audience on. Slowly the group moved on in the direction of the Stargate. Reluctantly Daniel resumed his place beside Shinora, but he kept casting them a couple of uncertain glances over his shoulder. Sam walked on, too, flanked by O'Neill and Makepeace. She smiled reassuringly at Daniel.

"Well, you haven't answered my question yet," O'Neill prodded.

"Ahem, I'd rather not say." Sam squirmed inwardly. She couldn't tell him. It simply was too embarrassing. Though in a way, it had also been just too funny. Teal'c, the Rottweiler, Robert, the German Shepherd, Daniel, the Cairn Terrier and Jack, the mutt. A small grin appeared on her face. But this time it stayed just a grin.

Unbidden, she suddenly wondered as what type of dog the others would see her.

Maybe she'd ask them - one day.

Pushing the thought aside, she resolutely marched on.

*

"Well, if there's nothing anybody wants to add, then I think we can safely close this meeting," General Hammond concluded the debriefing of SG units 1 and 3, complemented by Major Kovacek. "You're all on stand-down for the rest of the week."

Hiding a smile at the appreciative murmurs of his people, the general added, "One thing, though, before you leave." When nine instantly wary sets of eyes focused on his mouth, he gave them his best poker face before allowing a brilliant smile to crease his features. "Very well done, everybody! ... Dismissed!"

To say they left the briefing room in undue haste would have been carrying it too far, but they certainly didn't linger, either.

There was one thing still one the general's mind. "Colonel Makepeace, a word, please."

When Makepeace started to stand at attention, he waved him down.

"Colonel, you've got to be aware that something like this is surely bound to happen again. The way Maybourne and his idiots blundered through the galaxy, there must be dozens of worlds where the population will hold well-justified grudges against us. And there must have been other occasions when the inhabitants of the planets you … ahem… visited with the NID people got a good look at you. So they, too, will be able to recognize you."

A thoughtful nod from the other man confirmed his theory.

"Well, there is not much we can do about that. But maybe we can keep incidents like these down to a minimum. Colonel, I want you to compile a list of all the planets you went to during your work for Maybourne."

Forestalling the Marine's objections, Hammond lifted a hand and added, "I know you won't be able to recall every address, but try to get down as many as possible. You might also add detailed descriptions of the places, so even if we don't have a correct set of chevrons for each of them, we would be able to recognize a potentially dangerous planet. It might serve to prevent further trouble like this."

The general saw absolute agreement in Makepeace's eyes. "Consider this assignment your most pressing duty when you're back on base. SG3 will be on stand-down until you are finished."

"Yes, sir."

"Enjoy your down-time, Colonel. Dismissed."

Robert Makepeace left the briefing room thinking that the general's order hadn't been necessary. The next thing he'd have done anyway, would have been putting together that list. He most certainly wouldn't want a repeat of what had occurred in Calthem. One brush with death like that was enough. With only a couple of cuts, bruises and a nasty bang on the head, he'd got off lightly this time. He'd been caught with his pants down, but it would definitely not happen again if he could help it. Next time he might not be so lucky.

He walked along the familiar corridors of the SGC, drawing deep breaths. The air had the slightly metallic tang that inevitably came with it being constantly recycled and run through the air-conditioning. It also smelt of heavy machinery, numerous, hard-working people and strange, chemical odors that nobody in his right mind would want to analyze.

It smelt like home.

The only home he'd probably ever know.

As he neared the locker room, he heard Daniel Jackson's wheedling voice. "Come on, Sam. We're all alone. Nobody can hear us. You can tell me. I'm your friend. .... Saaam! ... What was so funny that you couldn't stop laughing?"

"I can't tell you, Daniel. ... Really, Daniel, I can't. Please, back off."

A few steps in front of Makepeace, Jack O'Neill rounded the corner. He, too, stopped outside the slightly ajar door of the locker room, eyebrows raised, an expectant grin plastered on his face. "Sam and ... Daniel?" he silently mouthed at his Marine counterpart. Makepeace nodded, grinning back.

"SAAAM! Puhleeese!" Daniel seemed to be exerting all his charms. The two men leaning against the wall next to the door could almost see the famous puppy dog look in their minds' eyes.

Apparently Sam wasn't immune either.

"Okay, Daniel, but only if you promise not to tell anyone."

"I promise, Sam. Not one word will come over my lips. Not ever. I swear it."

"Alright, ... but, Daniel, if this should get out, I'll know who couldn't keep his mouth shut ... and, Daniel, ... I'll kill you."

"Not one word."

"Well, it was like this. The Colonel and I had been talking about, ... well, about dogs. And, you see, suddenly I got this idea ... it was really weird, but I couldn't help it. ... I kept wondering what kind of dogs we'd be."

The listeners outside heard a strangled noise from inside. Both men looked at each other, eyebrows soaring, their expressions a mixture of suppressed laughter and bewilderment.

Next they heard Daniel ask in a weak voice, "Which ones did you choose?"

Sam's answer sounded muffled. It sounded as if her head was inside her locker. "Oh, it was quite easy. Teal'c's a Rottweiler, Robert a German Shepherd and you're a Cairn Terrier, but it wasn't that what made me laugh. You see, I couldn't decide about the Colonel and then I thought of this cartoon dog, Dodger, the mutt, the one that always has this tiny, orange kitten tagging along. ... Ah, well, then an image of the kitten together with the Colonel popped into my mind, and that set me off."

There was some alien animal in the locker room. The noises that reached the ears of the two eavesdroppers sounded like nothing they'd heard before.

"DANIEL! ... Stop it! ... Daniel! Will - you - stop - laughing? ... AT ONCE!"

"Ssssorry, Ssssam, .... but the picture .... Jack, the mutt. It's priceless, really. ... Oooooooh, GOD! Sam! ......Whoooohooooo....! ........... OOOOOPS!"

The mutt in question had just shoved the door fully open to reveal one seated archaeologist/linguist/best friend, who was bent double with laughter, tears streaming down his face. Caught in the act – said young man now gave a pretty good imitation of a landed fish. Next to him, an Air Force major/doctor of theoretical astrophysics stood hands on hips, scowling furiously.

The latter turned an interesting shade of red, as she spotted the two men who tried to hold up one side of the door frame each. Though with Robert Makepeace one couldn't be sure whether it wasn't the door frame that was supporting him rather than the other way around. He helplessly clutched at the structure, trying to suppress the laughter that threatened to spill over.

Not that he succeeded very well.

"Jack, the mutt, hm?" The mutt asked, looking from his supposedly best friend to the woman, who claimed she had feelings for him, with an inscrutable expression. "And what dogs did we talk about?" He fixed Sam with a stern mock glare. "All I recall talking about was a certain 'anthropuppy'."

"An 'anthropuppy'? I don't think I've heard of that breed. What type of dog is it?"

The peals of laughter that followed Daniel's innocent question echoed through the corridors of the SGC for a very long time.

THE END


End file.
